#making people's heads explode. she literally murders people by exploding their heads. that is her superpower

[elliespassagerprincess]

The air is getting crisp fall is coming so a bôa song is definitely needed can you do twilight by them

Twilight - (ellie williams x reader)

hi anon! Your wish is my command! Ugh I wish it was fall where I live, it's literally so fucking hot lmao... I hope you enjoy it <3

this story is based off the song Twilight by Bôa, if you can please listen to the song as you're reading:)

Pairing: ellie x fem!reader

requests are always open, feel free to leave one!

HUGE Warnings: descriptions of violence, murder, death, gore, sadness, small mention of depression and graves (don't read this if you aren't in the right mental state)

Summary: In which you couldn't win Ellie's heart

Authors note: ladies and ladies, the violence is back! Idk man it's been a while since I've written something like this. Remember you are loved <3

Your word and my word and her word is

Yesterday, today and tomorrow

And twilight gives me, an inner sanctity

And you're feeling, and you're hungry for her

And you don't understand it

But you know you haven't planned it

Your feelings and mine are all lonely

And dawn comes you're there lying with me

And you reach out to touch me, but I am in the twilight

You heard Ellie let out a sigh as she continued venting to you about Dina.

Stupid Dina.

Seems like all Ellie could talk about was her.

Why her? Out of all the people on the fucking planet why did it have to be Dina?

"She said "hey Ellie" and she didn't even smile with me! like what the fuck???" Ellie practically yelled with frustration.

You rolled your eyes at Ellie.

"Ellie calm down maybe she had a bad day"

Ellie stopped pacing around the room to look at you.

"Yeah.... you're right! She doesn't hate me she's just tired" Ellie said with a small smile.

You watched as Ellie lowered herself onto your bed and she looked up at you with a shy smile. She reached out her arms in your direction "cuddle?" she asked softly.

You let out a sigh as got into the bed spooning Ellie. She let out a hum of satisfaction.

"Ellie you need to stop doing this"

"doing what?"

you only shook your head and thought: "making me fall in love with you"

"friends don't cuddle" you brought up.

"Friends do" Ellie argued.

"Dina wouldn't like this" you added.

"well Dina isn't here right now" Ellie spoke matter of factly as she snuggled closer to you.

All you did was sigh as you brought your hand up to scratch Ellie's head. She let out a moan and she closed her eyes.

"You are a great friend, you know that?" Ellie spoke through a yawn.

Yeah, you were a great friend.

Your feelings and mine are all holy but,

You know and I know it's untrue because

When day dawns you're there lying with me

And the dawn can fly away

And you know I love you but you know that

There's nothing you can do about it

Because you love her, and you still want me

If I could be her... but I'm not her and she's not me

And you're somewhere different, on a different planet

You loved Ellie. You loved her a little more than a friend should.

Every time you saw her, your heart raced. She made you feel hot by just giving you a smile. Ellie made you feel things. Things you've never felt before.

You loved her.

But you knew she didn't feel the same.

You lay many nights next to Ellie, listening to her complain about Dina who's oblivious to Ellie's feelings.

It hurt you.

Seeing how Ellie always smiled when Dina walked into a room. Seeing how excited Ellie got, every time Dina said something. Every time Dina complimented Ellie, she almost exploded with joy.

It made you sick.

You tried being Dina.

Maybe Ellie would love you if you were someone else.

Maybe it was the way you did your hair? Was it the way you dressed? Was it the way you looked? What made Dina so special?

You tried cutting your hair the same length as Dina. You started dressing like her. You even copied her stupid music taste.

You tried. You tried so fucking hard.

But you could never be her and Ellie would never see you like that.

You knew Ellie loved you. She wanted you, but not in the same way you wanted her.

You were her best friend.

The girl she could go to with her problems, the girl who would help her with her hair and outfits.

You were nothing more than a friend.

You wanted to be Dina and you prayed to the gods that you could become her. But you didn't. You were nothing more than a friend in Ellie's eyes.

You saw how much Ellie's crush on Dina affected her.

How much it hurt her knowing that Dina most probably doesn't feel the same. And you being the amazing friend that you were, you decided to help Ellie.

You made it your mission to get them together.

Even though it hurt you knowing Ellie would never love you, as long as she was happy, you'd be happy too.

That's how you got yourself in your current position. Sitting across Dina in her apartment.

"So" you stared as you took a sip from the orange juice Dina gave you.

"we need to talk"

"about?"

"Ellie" "What about Ellie? Dina asked confused.

"do you have feelings for her?" you asked.

You watched as Dina burst out laughing, you watched as she threw her head back from laughing.

Anger sparked in you.

Why the fuck was she laughing? What's so fucking funny about liking Ellie?

After a while of Dina laughing, she slowed down breathing heavily before she let out a "Why would I like her? She's weird".

You felt your eye twitch before all hell broke loose.

How dare she say that about Ellie?

Your Ellie?

Ellie loved her so much and this is what Dina had to say?

This was the girl Ellie loved. She didn't deserve Ellie. If only she knew the amount of tears Ellie cried for her.

fucking bitch

You leaped from where you were sitting onto Dina, you straddled her as you punch her over and over again.

"How-"

*punch*

"dare-"

*punch*

"you"

*punch*

You don't even know how long you sat on her, and listened to her beg.

"Please" she whimpered as she tried getting you off her.

You eventually got off her breathing heavily as you looked down at your hands.

Your knuckles were bruised, and your hands covered in blood.

Dina's blood.

You looked over at her, seeing her slowly breathing. She didn't move, she didn't even make a sound.

Maybe she was unconscious.

You couldn't even recognize her with all the blood and bruises.

If Dina woke up, she would call the police. She would tell Ellie. Ellie would hate you.

You couldn't let that happen.

You slowly walked back from Dina, as you heard glass shatter. Your head snapped in the direction of the sound.

You saw pieces of glass scattered everywhere. And your orange juice was all over the floor.

Fuck you wanted to drink that.

You slowly bent down to pick up a shard of glass, and you held in your palm.

You walked towards Dina and you slowly pushed the glass into her trachea. You watched as the blood seeped from the wound.

You took a step back, leaving the glass shard in place. The blood dripped all over her throat and clothes, blood came out of her mouth.

Soon after Dina stopped breathing.

You killed her. You fucking killed someone.

You knew you made the right decision by killing Dina, because now you finally had Ellie to yourself.

And you still want it

The inner sanctity

And it's an evil

But the evil is necessary

And you're still hungry for her

And you still want her loving

But she doesn't love you

You watched as Ellie sat next to Dina's grave. She was sobbing.

Why the fuck was she crying over someone who didn't feel anything for her?

After Dina's death Ellie really struggled. She struggled to accept that the girl she loved wasn't here anymore. And what hurt Ellie the most was that Dina never knew.

Dina never knew the love Ellie had for her.

You watched Ellie spiral. You watched how she suffered.

Your plan was get rid of Dina, not the hurt the girl you loved.

Late at night when Ellie would lay in your arms you would sometimes feel regret for what you did. You didn't know it would affect Ellie the way it did, and you never wanted to hurt her. The guilt you felt soon get's replaced with pride when you realize that you got rid of the girl that was only going to hurt Ellie.

You saved Ellie. You saved her from rejection and embarrassment.

You knew she would get over it eventually.

Ellie's life wouldn't stop because her crush died. At some point she'll just have to accept it and you'll be here waiting for her with open arms.

You quietly walked towards Ellie as she sobbed next to Dina's grave, you raised your right hand putting it on her shoulder.

Ellie looked up at you, and in her eyes you could see how broken she was.

"It's ok Ellie" was all you said before she continued to sob into her hands.

You let out a sigh at the sight.

Months after Dina's death you realized that Ellie wasn't going to forget so easily.

You watched as she printed out pictures of her and Dina, and she placed it all over her apartment. You watched as she went to Dina's grave every week.

You listened to Ellie cry almost every night.

Even though you knew Dina didn't feel anything for her, Ellie still wanted her. Ellie still craved Dina.

Yes, she got affection from you, but you were never going to be enough.

All she wanted was Dina.

And you knew in the years to come Ellie wouldn't be able to move on and forget.

Even though you were there for her through everything. Even though you showed her nothing but love, the only person Ellie ever wanted was Dina.

She wanted Dina's love. Dina's care.

You were nothing but a friend. The realization made you sick.

You did everything for her.

You even killed for her.

But you'll never be Dina.

All you could was comfort her and hope, she'll one day feel the same.

#ellie williams #ellie tlou #ellie the last of us #ellie tlou x reader #ellie tlou2 x reader #ellie williams blurb #ellie williams drabble #ellie williams fanfic #ellie williams fanfiction #ellie williams imagine #ellie x reader #dark elli william #ellie miller #ellie tlou2 #ellie williams angst #ellie williams fan fic #ellie williams fic #ellie williams one shot #ellie williams oneshot #ellie williams promlt #ellie williams the last of us #ellie williams tlou #ellie williams tlou2 #ellie williams x fem reader #ellie williams x female reader #ellie williams x reader #ellie williams x reader smut #ellie williams x y/n #ellie williams x you #ellie x fem reader

[demonscantgothere]

Okay, some thoughts about Saurondriel in that finale:

The pure literary drama of Sauron and Galadriel. It’s Shakespearean tragedy to the extreme. Halbrand has tried to win Galadriel over as friend and an ally since the beginning of them meeting each other; and it’s obvious it was very important to him that Galadriel was an ally—he had constantly given her unsolicited political advice, and it was all very politically savvy manipulation on how they should make more allies. Hold on for a minute, Galadriel, it is impertinent that Númenor is our friend. Hold on, Galadriel, it’s important that we go behind Queen Míriel’s back in order to exploit her fear and give her a means of mastering it so that we may master her. Hold on, Galadriel, I keep telling you I don’t want to go back to the Southlands, but I know you won’t give up this search for revenge in order to kill me. You will not let me go gently into that good night. You will hunt me down until the end of time. So, I’m going to discourage you from putting a crown on my head, so you keep believing I’m just one of the good guys, and then I’m going to cave in to the idea and Do The Right Thing and save these Southlanders and be their king, to further put the idea into your head that I’m a good person. Then, I’m going to use your bolstering of me in order to build up an army, so that I can use that army against you in the future just in case I need it. Galadriel has twice promised Halbrand an army.

This sounds like a manipulative villain, doesn’t it? Especially to those of you who hadn’t previously explored the dark potential behind Halbrand’s actions yet? Maybe I’m just naturally suspicious at this point in my life, but this guy has given off major red flags since Day One.

And now that it has come out and Galadriel has discovered exactly why he did all of these things—because of his hidden identity as Sauron—everything is going to explode between Halbrand, the Elves, the Dwarves, the Men, and the Orcs. If they all discover who he really is, they are going to try to either (1) murder him, like permanently-destroy-his-spirit murder him or (2) imprison him for all of time because he is literally a war criminal. Sauron is a war criminal who never faced justice, but he’s not just any war criminal. He’s a powerful being, a fallen angel of sorts that is a reflection of Lucifer per Tolkien’s Catholic upbringing. Sauron is our Lucifer Morningstar, guys. That’s literally what he is. He is the Devil. Let me paint a picture for you: Sauron is the dude who will whisper sweet nothings in your ear as he slowly slips the knife into your back and the blood pours down his fingers as he kisses the shell of your ear. I bet he licks his fingers off afterwards, too. That’s literally who this guy is.

Canonically, he had kidnapped people’s lovers and requested surrenders when he had already killed their lovers, and after they showed up to rescue their loved one and attempt a truce, Sauron would say, “Oop, sorry, I shapeshifted into a werewolf and devoured the Love of Your Life,” and then turned around and ate them, too. And I’m not making that up. That’s canon. Let that sink in. Really give that a moment to sink in. That’s Tolkien canon.

That got intense now, didn’t it?

. . . Would you forgive this dude?

. . . And do you really think this guy is going to let anyone imprison him or kill him of all things?

And when they turn on him, he is going to turn on all of them.

We are 100% going to see the moment when Sauron decides to split his soul into two pieces and make a horcrux long before Voldemort made it cool. It’s harder to kill an enemy who has not one, but two souls, isn’t it?

But from Galadriel’s perspective, we are going to see a deeply wounded individual who is in pain over the loss of her family. Over the loss of her brother. In war. She is processing trauma, and Halbrand seemed to be a very good friend. Someone who rescued her when he didn’t have to. Someone who looked out for her. Someone who showed her respect by retrieving the dagger of a brother whom she is still grieving over and returning it to her—an emotional memento to Galadriel that cannot be ever replaced should it be lost, and he got it back for her. Someone who gave her advice that is correct and works. Someone who helped her navigate the need to protect herself by helping her complete her mission, so that she feels safe and happy again. She wants revenge for her brother’s death. Halbrand appeared as though he was helping her to achieve that peace.

Galadriel is not stupid. She is hopeful. She is good. She is grieving war trauma. She is in pain. There is nothing about any of that which is stupid, and it’s insulting and sexist to insinuate it just because Galadriel is a woman. Women are allowed to be clouded by pain, too. You wouldn’t say that if this was male character. And if you would, you think you’re some genius who would see through Sauron’s designs even though all of these other powerful beings couldn’t. “The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he did not exist.” Please, spare me the I’m smarter than that speech.

Now that she has learned his identity, this is the truth: no matter his intentions, he lied about who he was to her. This is a person who can no longer be trusted now that his true self is revealed. What else may he have lied about? And how could she ever really trust him again? She wouldn’t, and she shouldn’t. She will turn on him because not only is he is her sworn enemy—he pretended to be something he wasn’t.

Because he lied about one thing for sure, it brings all of the other stuff into question too. Now we can never really know the truth. We don’t know how much of what he said was lies.

She will turn on him. The next step? These two are literally going to go to war against each other. These two are literally going to go to war against each other. And it won’t stop until one of them is dead. An Elvish commander and Dark Lord on opposing sides.

They were always going to come to blows because he is the villain; he has to pay and Galadriel will make sure he pays. Poetic justice will be achieved. Triple the points since it has been implied multiple times that Finrod’s death was directly linked to servants of Sauron, so by proxy he is the reason her brother is dead.

You can tell this same story with two men, but we’ve gotten that story a million times before. We don’t need another Obi-Wan versus Anakin Skywalker moment, do we? And I’m not saying those two stories are the same because they are not—but the effect is still two friends becoming enemies, and they don’t have to both be of the same sex for that story to matter any more or any less. Their sex or gender has absolutely nothing to do with this. Let’s not be discriminatory here. You wouldn’t whine if Sauron tricked a male. You are saying a woman has more responsibility to not let herself be tricked by a man than another male does, and that’s Victim Blaming 101. That’s the equivalent of asking, “What was she wearing?” It doesn’t matter what she was wearing, he took advantage of her and that’s on him, not her, so sit down and shut the fuck up and listen.

Sauron’s deception and betrayal ran deep during this time. He lied about who he was with every new powerful friend he made, from the Elf lords to the Dwarf lords and beyond. And a lot of people, including a lot of Elves, fell for it. That’s canon. Why are people mad that . . . this is what’s being written for the story in the show? That’s literally what Tolkien wrote. And why not have Galadriel as our protagonist, so we don’t have all male heroes which was a huge complaint about the original The Lord of the Rings? Galadriel gets to be our betrayed hero who avenges her family instead of Elrond. Galadriel canonically lost family in that war in ways Elrond did not. Giving her the anger and the revenge to play the task of our hero makes more sense as the War with Morgoth affected her more deeply. Did you really wanna give the main hero position to, what, an original character? That would have been horrific. Please, Galadriel is right here, and she’s a wonderful protagonist.

It’s literally canon that Sauron was a masterful liar and deceiver. Hello, Lucifer Morningstar. Oh my God, Charlie Vickers delivered. I really want to see his audition tape, tbh. He delivered all and more.

I mean, he lied because he’s literally Satan and a war criminal on top of that—a war criminal in survival mode on the run and Galadriel has already admitted to him that she is going to hunt him down until the end of time to make him pay for that, so why not be her friend/lover and betray her first before she can betray him? You’re talking about two immortal beings here. This will never end until one of them kills the other.

Triple points if he accidentally falls in love with her in the process, but that’s just me pointing out the popularity of the whole enemies to friends to lovers back to enemies thing.

It’s a great overall dynamic. Sauron worships Galadriel while she wants to kill him. She isn’t going to change him; she’s going to try and kill him. Oh yes, please. Give me that. I want her trying to slit his throat while he makes moon eyes AT HER. The base dynamic is pretty riveting storytelling when you start looking ahead at what’s to come with the upcoming war.

Honestly, it’s a great story that’s going to unfold and I can’t wait to see what direction they take this.

#trop spoilers #halbrand x galadriel #galadriel x halbrand #haladriel #galadriel x sauron #sauron x galadriel #galadriel #halbrand #halbrand is sauron #sauron!halbrand #the rings of power #rings of power #trop

[shiikiyun]

Futa Kajiyama and Remorse

by someone that would hit him in the head if they had the chance

The discussion over whether Futa's shown remorse over his actions is genuine or not is something that has existed for years at this point, and it'll probably always be a debate. Just thought I'd give my personal take on it.

Starting off by saying that it is very ironic that a huge part of the discussion on his character and crime is how genuine he is when he admits fault, considering his case is entirely related to social media, almost like how when public figures online mess up and everyone else picks apart their apologies and rate the sincerity of them (not saying it's a bad thing, influencers will explode before handing a good apology, i just thought it was funny to point out). That aside, let me actually talk about him.

First, what did he do? In short, he began a witch-hunt campaign and doxxed a middle-schooler over a claim with no basis that said kid tried to reason with him over and he ignored, (pressumably) pushing her to suicide. Fucked up. Very understandable unforgiven veredict in the first trial, since his denial of his actions was so strong, he had it coming for sure.

Now, his feelings around his crime. It's said a lot that he doesn't feel sorry for his victim, that he only feels anxious and "guilty" because he's facing consequences and he's scared of dying, so he'll do anything to avoid that (so; admit fault, even if he doesn't believe he was wrong). And he is stubborn, so it's not crazy to see it that way, but—

Does he really not care?

From the way I see it, Futa is telling the truth when he says he never intended her to die. Personally, I would "should've thought about it twice then?" 'd him if I could, but I can't in good faith call him disingenuous for saying he didn't want it to end that way.

People don't take their actions on social media seriously. This happens all the time. People will say they most cruel things to strangers over minimal disagreements, and they don't consider it to be that damaging because "it's just social media". Futa is no different than that.

He got a power trip from the praise he received after he called out a teacher for sexual harrassment (which is obviously an actually fair reason to dunk on someone), took it too far over something mundane, and it actually had real life consequences on an innocent person. And he knows this. He's always known. The very moment he realizes what he did is when he's horrified of himself and is visibly shocked— He didn't want this. But he did it, and now there's blood on his hands.

To call that reaction disingenuous, or relate those feelings solely to the fact that he's facing consequences now, is completely ignoring that it happens before he's aware about receiving backlash from his friends.

That's where his anxiety comes from. He's always known he fucked up awfully. When ES insists on him being a murderer, what makes him stutter and show fear is that same word. He's a murderer, and he can't cope with that, but he knows what he did no matter how much he denies it. From the very beginning all Futa has been is a coward; unable to accept that his actions killed someone until he gets some sense literally beat up on him.

Now, this is where I drift onto something even more people might disagree with, but personally I think it's intentional. The representation of his victim, in both MVs.

Because Futa saw no difference between her and other people him and his friendgroup judged, firstly, she's shown as a videogame monster. Her silhouette changes to a more human-like one when he realizes she died, but that's about it. It shows more of his attempt at dettaching from what he did, refusing to see things for what they are.

But then Backdraft came and totally changed that.

I have to bring up the other 2 monsters to make my point clearer. Like I said, in Jihen Joutou, Futa pictures all of his targets as monsters. In Backdraft, the first 2 remain the same style, but Killcheroy changes.

isn't she adorable, by the way?

Unlike the other two, she's a completely different art style. Cartoony, cute, childish. Because Futa finally got to a point where he can't separate his actions from himself anymore, and had to recognize to have played part in her death, we see his victim for what she is—

A middle schooler.

Of course, her straight up appearing would've been enough to convey that, but the addition of making her character different (innocent, friendly, harmless) further shows how Futa does recognize that he hurt a child that ultimately wasn't doing anything wrong.

And, lastly, and this is entirely personal and where even More people might not agree: I just don't he's lying. I don't think he's trying to manipulate anyone into thinking he feels remorse just to get relief. I believe him when he says he knows what he did was wrong and he regrets doing it, that he wouldn't do it again. And I also understand (and agree) when he says ES, and us by extent, are doing the same.

People in the fandom like to act like he's crazy in the head (hyperbole) for saying that, that he is entirely saying it to guilt ES into forgiving him, and it honestly exhausts me. So like, hey, I'm not Futa, I'm part of the audience and I've voted. So let me say it: We are in fact the same.

He is not wrong in believing it. The MILGRAM system only abuses people under the excuse of giving justice and punishment to those that deserve it regardless of the degree of their crime— And I'm not talking about Kotoko. The psychological torture all 10 of these people are going through is not fair, not on the most forgivable one, nor the least. It is just an abusive system. This system killed people, some of which were teenagers, for having a troubled life. How is that any different from him?

Now I just said we are the same for the dramatism— Of course we are not the same on the basis that we are not actually hurting real people, but like, this fictional character doesn't have a conscience. By MILGRAM canon we really are just a bunch of people getting entertainment from 10 troubled people getting tortured. And as for ES, them continuing to partake on their role when they saw the extreme consequences it has just because they were told to do it is... Yeah, can you really blame any of the prisoners for thinking the guard is also in the wrong?

Ultimately, to conclude: I don't think Futa feels no remorse, nor do I think he only feels bad because he got consequences for it, and I don't understand this point of view. He's shown distress over his actions before backlash came his way, and right now he's at a point where he can't ignore that he fucked up and he will admit to it just fine. He is just simultaneously (and rightfully) upset that a fucked up system that does the same if not worse is the one that gets to decide whether he should be forgiven or not, because in all honesty, none of the prisoners deserve to be judged by MILGRAM.

Aaanyhow, that is it for me. I wrote this in a delirious state from sickness so I hope it's readable and coherent. Peace

Note: i know its implied es attempted to stop the trials and it didnt work, i dont think theyre evil and entirely on a power trip... please dont misunderstand the bit i talk abt es as me saying theyre evil and entirely on a power trip thank you

#milgram #fuuta kajiyama #fuuta milgram #character analysis #i guess #theory too? #idk. its once again almost 4 am #ive repeated it a lot in the text but this is my PERSONAL take #if you disagree youre free to do so but i feel very strongly about my stance on this #specially the very end #this isnt an open for debate post #im just putting my thoughts out there. u may add urs if u want though i just wont be actively debating but ill read it

[faislittlewhiteraven]

Undertale/ISaT crossover thoughts 2

Been thinking more about this despite trying to vent out all my thoughts in this previous post and now I have something of a plot I figured I'd share (in case anyone else would like a stab at it/some ideas for their own Undertale/ISaT crossover fanworks).

Story opens with a time looping Chara in the void hitting their breaking point. The wish for freedom from generations of monsters + their own alternating wishes to free their family and hurt the humans who hurt them equals a loop that begins with their incredibly painful death to buttercup induced internal blistering, and ends whenever Asriel (post absorbing Chara's soul) is killed or they 'fail to punish' Chara's human family and well. Chara doesn't know the rules so the two have them have been looping so long that now when they reach the village of humans by Mt Ebott, instead of the friendliness they were shown in early loops (before getting murdered by the official authorities who 'already have orders on how to treat monsters') the villagers now attack them on sight in terror (sobbing monster thing? Sadness!), and they keep dying over and over and over-

Basically full 'Start Again a prologue' vibes, and so Chara in full please just make it stop mode wishes to the Universe...

For everything that hurt them and monsters to be forgotten like a bad dream! (cue The Island, Sif and Chara's homeland, as well as certain nasty individuals like Chara's human 'family' being erased from memory)

For someone kinder, stronger, and untainted by hate to 'be the angel' to free the monsters in their place.

To feed the golden flower seeds stuck in Azzy's fur with their corpse.

To atone in any way for all the pain they've caused.

(To one day be able to sit and stargaze on top of Mt Ebott together with those they love, just like they promised Asriel they'd be able to do)

Cue time skip to after the end of Undertale and Flowey's 'please don't reset and ruin their happy ending' speech, to show Chara's ghost flopping on top of their flowerbed grave wondering how long they'll be able to last before they give in and ruin Frisk's happy ending once more (with heavy implication that Chara is once more stuck in a time loop with no idea how to get out).

Then a cut to Toriel and Frisk making their way down Mt Ebott and spying a shooting star, Toriel remembering her religion (goodness, how could she have forgotten the Universe?) and praying/wishing to the Universe to 'have one of its stars watch over her fallen children, and give them the happiness she could not'. Cue Chara being shocked out of their non existent skin by a person with the head of a star crashing down right through them onto their grave out of seemingly nowhere.

(Aka, Plot line 1: Chara is trapped in time loop hell and Loop has been sent to help them and possibly Flowey? out of it. ... That's literally all I've got for them right now because I have NO idea how to actually have them interact XD)

---

Next section of story cuts over to the northern coast line of Vauguard: Sif and family (including Nille) are on their way back to Bambooche after their most recent travels when basically the world explodes into colours, Sif suddenly remembers a LOT more than they used to and they can all now see the large landmass to the north.

Much eye boggling, confusion, wonder and tears are had before everyone kind of parties and passes out but next day, things are being taken much more seriously:

Why is Sif's forgotten homeland, the Isle of Chara, suddenly back? Why are colours? How is this going to effect all of Vauguard (the fashion industry alone..)? And... What happened to the people of the island? Are they ok or..? And how will the rest of the world react to them being the epicenter of so much very unexpected change?

Cue brief discussion on whether or not to go (mostly just double checking with Sif if he's actually up for it despite the many potential horrors they could find there that are sure to be extra traumatising to them in particular), the group checking in with the House in Bambooche to have word sent to the rest of Vauguard (and hopefully the world at large) that the Saviors of Vauguard are on the case, and well. They could catch a boat or they could try walking along that MASSIVE steel and concrete bridge with its weird black road stretching out over the ocean (which was apparently there the entire time and ok, now everyone is getting really freaked out because it seems there was a fair bit more forgotten than 'just' the Island and the Stars. What else did everyone have stolen from their heads?).

(Aka, Plot line 2: The Saviors of Vauguard heading for The Island, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst, and also the plot line I've done by far the most work on, to the point that it probably needs it's own post)

---

And last section, Frisk leads their monster friends down Mt Ebott back to 'the village of the humans' they came from and the monsters are stunned by the sight of... Well, wailing and sobbing adults who barely give the monsters a second glance, curious and 'just as silent as Frisk' children who smile and wave, and an old man Frisk introduces as 'Elder' who despite being very wobbly and also in tears, does his best to greet the monsters, thanks them for returning Frisk and very politely asks if Asgore is their king and here to kill them all as the stars foretold.

Cue a bit of awkward 'Um. Yes and no?' with a request to open talks with the 'leaders of humankind' only for the old man to laugh and cry as he explains that he's the closest thing this settlement's had to a leader for years now by virtue of being one of the few adults here with enough presence of mind to actually function through The Forgetting (he thanks his younger years of being an avid traveller) and that since the monsters breaking the Barrier seems to have made The Forgetting stop and they seem to have some form of government then honestly, they're the ones in charge now since stars know there's probably not much left of the Island's government still remaining all this time, and it's doubtful the people of other countries even remember they exist.

Cue everyone other than Frisk who knew all this being very surprised (Frisk's follow up 'explainations' don't really help a lot since The Forgetting is all they've ever known, and Toriel is so messed up when she realises Frisk and a good number of other kids literally can't talk or read without 'Communication Craft' due to the memory wipe effects they suffered under while growing up) and well. Monster kind move out of Mt Ebott at a breakneck pace while Toriel, Asgore, Alphys and everyone frantically try to get everyone settled, help all the very damaged Islanders into as much stability as they can (some recover better than others but there's a lot of grief over lost family, missing people, etc going around and monsters end up stopping more than a few suicides), and get things organised enough they know everyone will be fine before they can move onto working out WTF happened here. Also in the process of all this they end up working out that some things (like who was in charge before The Forgetting) are still being 'auto deleted' from memory (though the effect is fading as time goes on) and also the Island's capital is a space warped nightmare filled with Sadnesses right now and probably everyone should avoid it.

Lots and lots of world building regarding what Monsters vs Sadnesses are, my headcanons for the Universe religion (going with the Monsters also traditionally being Universe worshippers and much talk is had on the differences between 'the old ways' Toriel and Asgore remember vs the traditions and beliefs of the Islanders), and... yeah.

(That's Plot line 3: Frisk leads the monsters to the one semi stable human adult they know of and the monsters realise that not only are they free to live on the Surface now but the local humans both see them as saviors and desperately need their help after going through something that arguably makes the Underground look wonderful in comparison.)

---

Eventually I'm going to have to tie all three of these ideas together and I think I've got some ideas for Plot lines 2 and 3 such as:

Sif's family and/or Undyne bumping into each other catching all the trains to search for survivors across the Island

Mirabelle and to a lesser extent the whole party finding themselves the official Vauguardian ambassadors to the newly formed human/monster Island/Isle of Chara alliance who are very much in need of aid and more info about the rest of the world.

Papyrus and Frisk also being ambassadors, making all the friendships.

Sif realising 'the Elder' is their grandfather on their mother's side and trying to wrap their head around having any family around at all (and also trying not to think to hard about all the family still missing).

Isabeau and Odile uncovering just how much stuff countries outside the Island forgot (airports, train stations, cars, all that juicey science stuff).

The Saviors of Vauguard and various Undertale folks investigating the capital together (learning some of the less pleasant aspects of the Island's politics and culture while there including stuff about Sif's dad's side of the family and why the name Chara matter so much). But well. So far have NO CLUE how to get Chara, Loop and Flowey involved with the rest of the cast since well, they're reluctant to leave and no one else knows they're there. So. Yeah. That's what I have planned out mostly. Will list a bunch of stuff I've thought of regarding Sif's group going through the Island and their hometown (totally gonna bring up the 'Euphrasie Islander and possibly Sif's mom' theory in story but not actually confirm or deny it since well, Euphrasie is out of focus and most likely going through a major 'my memories have returned, how could I have forgotten-' breakdown her beloved Claude is going to have to help her through <3) but that's for another post and er. Yeah. Please feel free to share any feedback, ideas or thoughts you might have on this, and to take a stab writing/scribbling up some of this yourself as well as I think it cold be a lot of fun and I'd LOVE the help XD

#undertale #in stars and time #fais fanfic rambles #isat #isat act 6 spoilers #undertale spoilers #isat spoilers #ut #cw suicide mention #undertale isat fusion fic #post game #fanfiction #Chara and Loop have so much trauma to rant furiously together about but IDK how to even start #Flowey I think remembers SOME stuff looping with Chara during their fusion but they only got those memories back post Undertale #heavy focus on the forgotten island #and all the stuff that may have been forgotten all over the world (in both settings) along with it #...Now wondering if I could play up Dr Gaster vanishing as being partly due to the Forgetting as well #(I feel real guilty making Chara 'responsible' for causing so much damage they'll no doubt will feel horrific guilt over) #(hopefully ensuring the 'win condition' for the story's end requires them getting a happy resolution makes up for that a little) #no clue how to start it but yes frisk and Sif looper friendship is mandatory and I WILL make it happen. Somehow

[inkblackorchid]

I was gonna try to keep my mouth shut, but I can't. I just can't. I have to go on another Aki rant because I feel like I'm going to explode. It's about this scene:

This drives me insane and I'm putting this under a readmore. Expect incoherent screaming, all ye who enter here.

Ok. Ok. I have so many issues with this scene. Specifically, with the way it develops later, when Aki's busy trying to figure out how to save a child from being swept up by a storm:

And I just. Look, I think the fact that I already wrote a fic that basically completely turns Aki's reaction here on its head should basically tell you everything. But! But. Allow me to defend why I think this whole scene is one big heap of horseshit, with a bit of analysis of canon and actual evidence to back up my claims and shit.

The thing is, I have seen people give this scene a charitable read. I've seen people be happy for Aki to enjoy freedom from the psychic powers that have given her so much trouble in her life. And the thing is, if this were season one or season two Aki, I would be completely on board with that take. Unfortunately, this scene is preceded by the pre-WRGP arc. But more on that below.

Moreover, I can make an educated guess about what they were going for here (in terms of messaging, because this is a kids' show at the end of the day and messaging is something you have to be properly concerned with when it comes to these). I can imagine it running somewhere along the lines of "you don't need special powers to be a hero". Or even "you can grow past the hurt and/or the mistakes in your life and still become a good person or even a hero". And really, I wish I could believe that take. It's just. The writing simply doesn't add up. I wish it did, but it doesn't.

This is where we get back to the pre-WRGP arc. And not just that, actually, but the timeskip between the dark signers and pre-WRGP arc, too. Because the thing is, the last time we have seen Aki in anguish about her powers on-screen by the time the episodes above (108-109) arrive was during the DS arc, during the duel with her father, which happened during episodes 40-41. 40. to. 41. This was over sixty episodes ago at this point. And after that, that's it. As far as the DS arc is concerned, Aki's conflict about her powers is resolved the second she controls them for the first time when her father tries to interfere in her second duel against Yusei.

(Yeah, remember this moment? That was literally the last time we saw Aki in conflict with her powers.)

And I know some people would argue "but what about the dark signer duel with Misty?". And yes, I get it. Misty does accuse her of having murdered her brother with her powers and Aki gets incredibly (understandably) upset about it. But the thing is, we know that's fake, and during the duel, Aki knows that, too. She goes as far as insisting that there were no casualties at the duel where Misty thinks Toby died.

(Yes, I have screenshot proof for literally every dumb little thing in this show, why do you ask?)

It's only after Misty keeps pushing and backing her into a corner during their duel (and literally gaslighting her) that she begins to believe Misty's version of the events. Which is why this doesn't "count" as Aki being in conflict with her powers the way her second duel with Yusei does. At least not to me, feel free to debate me over this if you wanna.

Okay, but what am I driving at here? Fair question. Let me hop back to after the dark signers' defeat.

So, we know there's a half-year timeskip between the DS and the pre-WRGP arc (which was allegedly enough for NDC to connect the city and Satellite, deal with all the social issues that entailed, and also build a giant duel network, which I will never believe but I digress). Unfortunately, what exactly our main characters did during that timeskip is never addressed, it's just kind of there to segway immediately into the WRGP setup. So the only thing we can do is guess at what they got up to based on where they are as people by the time we get back to them during the start of the pre-WRGP arc. So where's Aki at when we see her again after the dark signers' defeat then?

Oh, she's attending duel academy again now! That's nice. So that probably means the student body isn't scared shitless of her anymore and she's not being ostracised anymore.

Wow, she's an exceptional student! That means she must be a really good duellist. So she got the hang of her powers, then?

...Ah.

Do you start to see my problem? Past the DS arc, we are not being given any indication that Aki is still struggling with her powers or still resents them or herself like she used to. You could be forgiven for thinking that she's healed in the meantime. She's fine. She has accepted herself and can now use her powers safely. Which makes her later claiming "she no longer needs that cursed power" a bit... hmmm. And another thing. The fact that she refers to it as "cursed" rubs me the wrong way. After the defeat of the dark signers, she literally never does that even a single time before the moment in the hospital during the storm. (I'd post all the screenshots to prove it here but for one, tumblr doesn't allow it, and for two, I hope you'll believe I did my due diligence without it.)

And it just irks me. If the powers are still a "curse" to Aki by episodes 108-109, why give us the moment above?

And why give us this moment, where she saves Sherry, Yusei, and herself with those powers?

And why give us this moment, where she literally uses her powers at a public event to protect people, and is evidently not cussed out as a witch for it? Neither of these moments do anything to indicate that Aki still hates her powers. They don't indicate that she sees them as a "beast of burden" or necessary evil of a sort, either. On the contrary, I don't think it would be too out there to claim all these moments make her look rather badass. Like a small celebration of "hey, now she can finally use these powers for cool and not evil things!".

Yet, somehow, we still end up with episodes 108-109, where the writers expect the audience to buy that Aki was secretly still hoping she might eventually be rid of these powers after all. And maybe this would be easier to swallow if there weren't also the fact that they later literally go back on it to add to this confusing mess. Because the thing is, we all know the finale scene after the three-way duel with Sherry where Aki protects them with her powers (which have suddenly reappeared, aha!) again and also finds out she can use these powers to heal. So not only is the framing of Aki suddenly being glad to have lost her powers extremely weird, it's also temporary anyway!

So my question is. What was the point. What was the point of all this if the writers ended up going back on it anyway? Because I want to believe there's a reasonable, charitable explanation that also makes sense with what they show us in terms of Aki's characterisation past the DS arc, but if there is, I cannot for the life of me find it. If anything, this whole thing feels like it completely contradicts itself.

First, they tie up Aki's conflict with her powers with a neat bow after she manages not to hurt her father anymore. Then, they launch into the pre-WRGP arc and blatantly tell us that she can now control them. No questions asked. Indisputable fact, and we get nothing that contradicts that, either. Then, we get a bunch of setup showing her using her powers, too, and what's more, we get other significant players in the cast taking notice of it, too, as though it might become relevant. Because Sherry isn't the only one who gets curious about Aki's powers.

(I will never understand how Placido's hood works together with his horn-thingies and have stopped trying at this point.)

The literal, central antagonists of season 3-4 also take notice of it. Like that means something. Like it'll come up again later. But, well. We know it doesn't.

Instead, she suddenly loses her powers out of nowhere (and we are never given a reason for it, either, which does nothing to make this writing decision seem anymore understandable). And, look. The thing that upsets me most about this isn't even the fact that it feels a little inconsistent with Aki's character post DS arc. If that were the only problem, I could still suspend my disbelief far enough to go along with the idea that she secretly still hated her powers quietly in the background and wanted them gone anyway. What really pisses me off is that it reeks of zero setup and knee-jerk decisions in the writing room ten miles against the wind. If they wanted us to believe Aki's glad to be rid of her powers, why give absolutely no indication that she's at odds with them past episode 41 anymore? Why let her state outright that she can now control them? Why show her on several occasions using them to her own and other people's benefit, the way a hero would? And if her powers are supposed to vanish and it's supposed to make sense, why is there no reason for it? They already used cyborg timetravel at that point, they could have literally come up with any nonsense related to that and it would have probably made at least more sense than just letting her powers vanish for no reason at all. Also, if the message behind all this is supposed to be either of the things I mentioned way above—if the idea the audience is supposed to be getting is either "you don't need special powers to be a hero" or "your past and/or your mistakes don't define you and you can heal and grow past them"—why reintroduce the powers, which, in this reading, would be a symbol of Aki's pain, of her mistakes and her dreaded past, at the very end, during the finale, then? It just doesn't add up, and it frustrates me to no end.

The writers wanted to make the moment Aki realises she can help people (well, one person, a child) without her powers seem triumphant so bad, but every time I watch it, it just completely falls flat for me. This isn't a triumph, this is a hot mess of bad writing decisions. All I'm saying is, if they wanted me to buy that Aki would be happy about losing her powers here, they were missing a hefty amount of setup and also shouldn't actually have given them back to her during the finale (no, not even as healing powers).

Moreover... I'll freely admit I also have a personal problem with this scene. I've seen this show and these episodes several times by now, and during my last rewatch and my current one, something about this scene has been creeping up on me, and I think I've figured out what that is now. So I talked about the possible message behind this scene already, and the reading I've given so far was fairly forgiving. But the thing is, there is another reading that has occurred to me that I can't unsee anymore. As much as you could make a valid case that this scene is trying to say that people don't need to be special to be heroes and save others, that past mistakes don't define us, and yadda yadda, there's also a much, much less pleasant way to interpret this scene: "You're better off if you don't stand out." And I'll freely admit, this interpretation probably occurs to me specifically because I was considered a "weird kid" at school, singled out by bullies, and avoided by "popular" kids (take a wild guess why I relate to Aki so much!). And over the years, you learn to downplay that "weirdness" because you become desperate to be accepted by someone, anyone. And given everything the show gives us about Aki's relationship with her powers, it'd make sense that this idea would be buried somewhere in her head, too. It's better not to stand out. Don't be weird. Sand down your edges so there's no chance people could get upset about them. You're better off being whatever everyone else considers "normal" than being whoever you are. It doesn't matter if this is a part of who you are, just become someone else. Someone who's easier to accept. Who's easier to love. You don't need your "weirdness".

You don't need this cursed power.

You know, the "cursed power" that Aki had from the beginning of the show, that was a part of her for years, and that the show didn't give any indication could vanish. The power that we were led to believe would just be there forever, because it was simply a part of Aki, not a conscious thing she (or the narrative) could choose. The power that we were, for all intents and purposes, led to believe she had mastered and maybe even accepted along the way. But sure, let's get rid of that. It's better if she's """normal""". And more convenient for the writers, too! After all, if she doesn't have powers anymore, they can't cause plotholes (of which the WRGP already has enough) and can't possibly give Aki any more badass moments, which makes it that much easier to sideline her. And let's package this weird, shittily set-up moment in a message about how she's better off without her powers anyway. She's happy! It makes complete sense that she's happy. She's finally normal like everyone else. Ignore the way people who might relate to the character could possibly interpret this moment differently. And ignore how none of the writing surrounding this moment makes sense.

...Sigh.

Okay, I think I've let off enough steam. I just. Yeah. I'm sorry, but I cannot for the life of me view this scene in a favourable way and watching it today made me want to chew glass tbh. My only solace is that they went back on this trainwreck writing decision in the finale. Which, really, just makes this whole mess really, really pointless, doesn't it?

For anyone who stuck around this long, thanks for reading. Sorry if this got extra-rant-y. Idk man, I just think “it’s worth the effort to accept yourself as you are, even with all the bits you might not like at first” would have been a better message than whatever this turned out to be.

#yugioh 5ds #aki izayoi #akiza izinski #ygo 5ds #5ds #character analysis #orchid watches 5ds (again) #episode 108 #episode 109 #orchid rambles

[jackoshadows]

I always find it surprising that Jon Arryn being a strong Hand of the King is a popular opinion. Jon Arryn is one of the worst political players of Ned's generation or maybe in any generation of Westeros, IMO.

Okay, I understand that it's politically expedient to ally with house Lannister after Robert's Rebellion. However, why didn't the Hand of the King keep an eye on the Lannisters and try to mitigate their political power in KL. Under Jon, Cersei becomes Queen, the KG who broke his oaths and literally backstabbed the previous king is made Kingsguard again - that's already two Lannisters close to the King. Tywin keeps lending more and more money to the city making it in debt to him. Considering that House Lannister won KL through treachery - wouldn't it be wise to keep a check on them?

Janos Slynt. How is it that Jon Arryn keeps selecting the worst people? It's Jon who promotes Janos to the position of Lord Commander. Stannis spends hardly any time in KL and yet he believes Jon Snow over Janos Slynt because as he says he 'Knows Janos Slynt'. That's how obviously terrible Slynt is and we see how terrible he is whenever he shows up. And yet Arryn makes him LC of the gold cloaks. By the time Jon Arryn decides to remove him, it's too late. 

Littlefinger. Who is it that appoints LF to the small council as master of coin? You guessed right! It's Jon Arryn again! And even if it was Lysa who convinced him to hire LF, it's not like Arryn didn't know Littlefinger himself - LF was in charge of customs at Gulltown and Arryn would have interacted with him. Tyrion Lannister thinks of him as a dangerous man. And under Littlefinger, the crown starts losing more and more money. And it looks like Arryn didn’t do anything about this. 

Lysa. There's of course a moral failing here, with Arryn's marriage to a girl young enough to be his daughter in return for Tully support in the rebellion. However, the fact that he didn't perceive or care enough about her unhappiness and emotional state or figure out her relationship with Littlefinger also informs on his detachment from his family. As we see over the course of the books, Lysa Arryn is not particularly smart. She's easily manipulated and impulsive and the fact that she managed to not raise any suspicions in Jon Arryn about what was happening to him is telling.

Think about it. Who were the people responsible for Ned Stark’s downfall? Lysa writes to Catelyn telling her of a conspiracy brewing in KL and this is what provides the impetus for Catelyn convincing Ned to accept Robert’s offer.

It was LF and Lysa who were poisoning Jon setting off the whole cascade of events. It was the discovery of Cersei and Jaime’s incestuous adultery that leads to Ned’s arrest. It was because of Cersei, Littlefinger and Janos Slynt that Ned’s plans fail. Littlefinger, Cersei, Jaime, Lysa and Janos - all put there by Jon Arryn. Jon Arryn unwittingly build the nest of vipers that Ned Stark found himself in.

And yeah, we can criticize Ned for not figuring out Littlefinger and Cersei and Slynt etc. However, he only knew them for months. Jon Arryn knew them for years!

And that’s not even getting into the morality of his actions. The condoning of what was done to Elia and her babies by rewarding Tywin Lannister. As high as honor? More like as low as dirt. Robert’s reign started with the murder of babies.

On the whole, Jon Arryn comes across as a poor politician who was manipulated and maneuvered and in over his head as Hand of the King to Robert Baratheon. An useless king and a poor Hand lead to the pressure cooker situation of KL that ended up exploding when Ned Stark got there. There was really not much maneuvering Ned could do considering all the pieces that his mentor Jon Arryn had moved into place - from there it was a very quick move to a checkmate.

#asoiaf #Jon Arryn #Ned Stark #Littlefinger #Janos Slynt #House Lannister #Robert's Rebellion

[whump-me]

Martyr, Chapter 9: True Believers

Chapter 9 of Martyr, a novel-length sci-fi whump story about a captured Martian rebel with a secret and the renowned interrogator who has waited a decade for the chance to break him. This series is best read in order. Masterpost here.

Contains: defiant whumpee, cold whumper, restraints, interrogation, verbal sparring, war crimes mentions

---

Wraith

Isadora paused to draw in a long breath, then another. She sounded like she was breathing through a straw all of a sudden. Huh. Now that was interesting. She looked like she was actually having trouble getting herself to talk.

She was probably faking, of course. Isadora Pope didn’t have feelings, let alone show them to a prisoner. No, she just wanted him to think they were here to bare their souls to one another—as if they were two old friends sitting on a park bench late at night, staring up at the dome, sharing a bottle of something bitter and strong between them. As if anything could make him forget where he was.

On the other hand, she did have feelings—he had firsthand evidence of that. Firsthand, literally—his right one, the one she had kicked when she had lost control.

He leaned in attentively as she took another delaying breath. Whether she was faking or not, this was going to be interesting.

“I was a young soldier back then,” she said. “Earth was my first assignment. I drew the short straw—I didn’t want to be here. No one did. I wanted to make a difference by fighting the rebels in Russia who were burning their own cities to spite the Unified Earth forces—not babysit a bunch of factory workers.”

Babysitting. Was that what they called it? The only thing that stopped Wraith from tightening his hands into fists was that he knew exactly how much pain it would cause him. Instead, he tightened his jaw until he could practically hear the bones straining against each other.

“It was sheer dumb luck that I wasn’t in the right dome when it happened,” she said. “My commanding officer sent me to deliver a message halfway across the planet—or at least it seemed that way to me that day. I resented being used as a messenger. If there’s one job that feels more useless than guarding a factory door, it’s running a message clear across to the next dome like a cheap drone. So I went as slowly as I could. I suppose I thought I was making a point. I missed the train back, and to take the next one. It was halfway to the dome when it exploded.”

She swallowed. Her neck was tight. She didn’t look like Isadora Pope just then. She certainly didn’t look like a statue or a goddess. She looked… human. Like anyone who had seen too much—and that was everyone Wraith knew, these days. It made the lines of her face looked uncomfortably familiar.

It was an act.

“From where I was sitting, I had a great view,” she said, her voice bitter and raw where she had shown nothing but ice and stone before. An act. It had to be. “I saw buildings fly apart. I saw… people. Or at least pieces of them. I even thought I saw my commanding officer, but it was probably my imagination. It wasn’t like there was much to recognize. He was missing half his face.”

Wraith shook his head slowly. “Is this supposed to make me feel sorry for you? Because even if I believed this little sob story of yours, which I don’t, you’d have to do a lot better than that. You want war stories? I’ve got all kinds I could tell you. Like the time you murdered an old man for hanging anti-Earth posters in the tunnels. We took out the soldiers who did it. And by we, I mean I. I took care of both of them personally. Dropped them on your doorstep after.” He gave Isadora a jagged grin. “And in retaliation, Special Security killed everyone the man had been in contact with for the past six months, and all their families with them. You were in charge by then, weren’t you? You were the one who ordered it. So if you want to trade stories, be prepared to come up with a decade’s worth.”

“They sent me back to Earth,” said Isadora. “They said I needed to recuperate. Get therapy. No doubt rot away in some desk job for the rest of my life. I let them send me back, because when you’re a soldier, you do what you’re told. I took the six months. I did all the therapy, aced it with flying colors, until I had my clean bill of health in hand. And then…”

“And then you did what a soldier isn’t supposed to do,” Wraith guessed. “You objected to your orders. You asked to be sent back here, and then you asked again, and again, until they put you on a ship just to be rid of you. Can’t say I blame them.” He shook his head. “This place almost killed you. It’s only dumb luck that kept you alive. And practically the first thing you did was demand to come back. You’re one to talk about people who have more anger than sense.”

But he frowned, because while a mission of revenge made sense, it didn’t fit what he knew about Isadora Pope. Then again, all he knew came from her former prisoners, which meant they hadn’t been in much of a state to give reliable testimony. But in the short time he’d known Isadora personally, she hadn’t struck him as the vengeful type.

For all her talk of his crimes, for all she must have spent the past ten years wishing death on the leader of the rebellion, she hadn’t shown even the slightest temptation to vent a decade’s worth of anger on him. Not like that guard from his first day here. She had been coldly professional, even while breaking his fingers. When he had finally made her angry, it didn’t have anything to do with the long list of crimes in his file. It was because he had made her look bad.

Isadora let out a mirthless chuckle. “People like you see everything through the lens of anger, don’t you? You’re animals, letting the heat in your blood drive you this way and that, until it drives you to your own destruction. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t only a problem with your side. Every year, Earth sends me recruits brimming with the desire to avenge those who died. Some of them are very good at their jobs, even fresh out of training. It doesn’t matter—I always send them back. Anger is a dangerous master. Especially when you convince yourself it’s not the one in charge.”

“You missed one,” said Wraith, thinking of the beating he had taken.

“Pardon?”

“One of your vengeance-fueled recruits. He decided to take out his anger on me when I first got here. It’s a good thing his fear of you was stronger, or we might not be having this conversation right now.”

Her eyes flashed. “Don’t change the subject.”

There it was again—that small spark of heat in her cold eyes. He had done it again, poked her ego right in the soft squishy middle, and he hadn’t even really been trying. He smiled at her, just to let her know she had seen. Aloud, he only said, “If you didn’t come back for revenge, then why? I know it wasn’t for the weather.”

She went silent for a moment, and Wraith got the impression she was weighing her words carefully, trying to decide how open to be. That alone was surprising. Hadn’t she come prepared with all the lies she’d need? Was it possible she was actually telling him the truth?

When she spoke, her voice was strangely soft. “Purpose,” she said. “The thing I thought the military would give me. I wanted to be a part of something greater than myself. I want my life to mean something. But there isn’t much meaning in following orders and delivering messages. My therapist used to say sometimes tragedy opens a door in a person’s mind that lets them see what they were born for. In my case, it was true.”

If she hadn’t been Isadora Pope, if he hadn’t known she must be an accomplished liar, he would have thought she was giving him a genuine confession. Hell, he was halfway to believing it, even knowing what he knew. Something about the look in her eyes, the tone of her voice, spoke of an almost painful sincerity. It made him want to trust her, even though he knew there was nothing more dangerous in this world.

“So what’s your purpose, if not revenge?” he asked. “Seems to me there aren’t many other reasons to care so deeply about wiping us out.”

“From the beginning, Earth was careless about Mars. Everyone resented being here, and so no one approached the task of pacifying your planet with the necessary singleness of purpose. Myself included.” She shook her head. A few strands of hair flew across her face. She pushed them out of the way. “My purpose is to change that. I’m here because someone has to care what happens on this planet—care enough to give up everything to make sure what happened ten years ago can never happen again.”

Maybe it was the way her perfectly straight hair grew ever-so-slightly mussed when she shook her head. Or maybe it was how the severe lights overhead reflected off her eyes, which gleamed with raw conviction suddenly, making her look like she was lit from within. Whatever the trigger, another image popped back into his head, overlaid on top of the image of Isadora sitting in front of him. He saw Gabriel, sitting at his desk, his hair like a halo. And just like that, he knew why his gut wanted to trust her.

That conviction in her voice was Gabriel’s conviction. That glow in her eyes, which grew until it seemed to outshine the harsh light from above, was Gabriel’s inner fire. It triggered a reflexive warm glow in him, even though that was the last thing he wanted to feel in Isadora Pope’s presence. And along with that glow, he felt a familiar yearning, a pull just above his belly button—the longing that came from being just outside the circle of light, wanting in.

Wraith wasn’t a true believer. Not like Gabriel. The only inner fire he carried with him was of the type Isadora so reviled. Anger drove him, hot and bright and righteous. But it was not his master. And Gabriel was the reason for that.

It would have mastered him, back in those early days, if he hadn’t had Gabriel by his side. Oh, how he had hated Gabriel’s voice of reason, his soft words and gentle touches that cooled the fire in Wraith’s veins. But it had kept him alive.

He had come to appreciate the deep conviction that drove Gabriel. But he didn’t share it. He was grateful for that. If he believed the way Gabriel did, he would never have been able to do half the things he had done. Gabriel was all heart, and his heart still remembered how to do something other than burn. It was impossible to do what was necessary when you felt everything.

But he understood true believers, even if he wasn’t one of them. Ten years’ worth of late-night conversations with Gabriel would do that. Which meant Isadora had just handed him a powerful key.

He fought to keep himself from grinning like a madman. He didn’t want her to know what she had done. Not just yet.

He knew who Isadora Pope was now. He knew it the way he knew Gabriel—all the way down to his bones. And because he knew Gabriel’s secret wishes and hidden fears and darkest thoughts, it couldn’t be that hard to figure out all those things about Isadora. It was like that stuff in school he had barely paid attention to—given X, solve for Y. Where X was the man he loved, and Y was his worst enemy.

“So you see,” said Isadora, jolting him from his triumphant thoughts, “I understand you better than you think.”

At first, he didn’t understand how she was echoing his own thoughts back to him. But she wasn’t, of course. She thought she had the key to him. That because of who he was, because of his position in the rebellion, he shared those core convictions, that inner fire. Because how could someone lead a rebellion for ten years otherwise? How could he inspire people to follow him?

With any luck, she would never know the truth of that. What he had truly done for the rebellion. How he had ended up where he was.

But her assumptions could serve him well. She wanted him to play Gabriel, did she? He could play Gabriel. There was no one on this planet or any other that he knew better.

---

Tagged: @straight-to-the-pain @soheavyaburden @gala1981 @whumpacabra @sacredwrath @suspicious-whumping-egg @sonder35 @decahedron-crabclaw @seasaltandcopper

Ask to be added or remove from taglist. Please feel free to ask to be tagged—I don’t find it rude! I like knowing people are reading.

#whump #whump writing #whump story #whump novel #my writing #my writing: Martyr #sci-fi whump #interrogation whump

[spicyicymeloncat]

talk/doodle about hatsune miku for the art/opinions thing

Hatsune Miku???

Oh wow… my favourite Ninjago character… ig I can work with this…

Happy belated birthday Hatsune Miku

Hatsune miku is a vocaloid (a vocal synthesiser) created by Crypton Future Media and she is used to sing (and feature as a character) in songs (usually in Japanese) created by various artists that own her software. She is a widespread internet sensation, globally famous making cameos in various other mediums, like comics, anime and lady gaga concerts.

If you’d rather not delve in the horrors of EC (which is murder and everything that’s worse than murder) then just skip this paragraph. Miku tends to be given character of a sentient doll constantly in an existential crisis and severe daddy issues. One of her roles is Maria Moonlit (which could be counted as her first appearance (or her last), if we’re counting song wise in chronological order. Idk? who’s counting amirite?). Maria Moonlit is an orphan born near the beginning of time, got struck by lightning and chosen to be the prophet and figure head to a technologically advanced medieval civilisation. She supposedly had the power to hear the voices of the gods who claimed to be her parents. However, the gods were evil and trapped somewhere and wanted to be born into human vessels, so she made up a lie to trick the people into starting a project to create magic twin babies to house the gods. This turns into an incredibly convoluted science experiment which involved serial killers, cloning, incest????, the government being overthrown, dragons and the entire city exploding and all technology being lost as the world is thrust into the dark ages. Maria lives the sad life of wondering who she is and wondering whether she’s just been used like a plaything to the gods, and technically she was, because she was a doll wound up like clockwork to repeat her miserable life forever (literally, there’s time travel shanigannery). We can assume she’s a doll because she’s the reincarnation of one that has been sent back in time. Okay Ik that was entirely crazy but that’s only the first part of evillious. Miku’s two most prominent parts in the series however, is trans lesbian servant girl Michaela, who got assassinated in the name of a jealous betrothed of a man with a one sided crush on her and became a tree - and licensed doctor by day, drug supplier mafia member by night, Margarita, who is unable to sleep because she’s secretly a doll and her husband only married her because she was rich and he likes gambling and sleeping around, so she released an airborne toxin killing a whole town whilst calling herself the sleep princess. The first girl, Michaela, is part of the more well known section of the series, the story of evil. She was originally a tree spirit in the form of a bird, who became a human in order to become close to a depressed peasant girl who was ostracised from her village due to her ancestry to a certain clan. She learns the joys of being human, hanging out with her friend, falling in love with said friend, but eventually her otherworldly beauty causes conflict and the continent goes to war, which ended in the genocide of a country and Michaela stabbed and left in a well. The other girl, Margarita, is a pretty significant character in the series due to the fact that the series is structured around the biblical seven deadly sins, with her story being Sloth (Michaela is a side character of Pride’s story). Margarita may seem like an odd choice for sloth as part of her story follows how she is unable to sleep, and instead works hard to develop her gift to her loved ones (but gift in the German meaning of the word check below image). But sloth also means lacking devotion or care, and Margarita by the end of it, despite once vowing she’d always her husband, couldn’t give a damn about him in the end, describing herself again like “a plaything, broken from the start” and eventually she gives up on everything. All these Miku characters all have the same things in common (other than being screwed over by men), which is their relationship with inhumanity and artificiality, which is kinda meta given how Hatsune Miku is an artificial singer made for the amusement of others. But at least she’s not about to poison anyone because of it.

I’ve spoken too much evillious, so let me info dump about a much more palatable Miku related thing. That was a pun because it’s Colourful Palette. Or Colour Stage? Uhh Project Sekai. Yeah. A rhythm game (that’s free), that revolves around the concept of different genres of hatsune Miku that come from magic other worlds and are really good therapists. There are five storylines of different music groups that have really strong feelings tm that their emotions spawned whole other worlds that are inhabited by vocaloids, who want to help the main characters, discover what their feelings are so they can write songs about it. Yeahhh… Miku comes in five different flavours! School, idol, street, catgirl clown and depressed! ALSO EVILLIOUS DID A CROSS OVER WITH THE GAME SO THE POISON LADY IS HERE ALSO. The songs used in the rhythm game consists of a lot of iconic vocaloid songs as well as songs specifically commissioned for the game, sung by both vocaloids and the real life voice actors, which is very fun. Hatsune Miku, due to coming in different forms in this game, kinda works like a character from a multiverse story (like spider verse or the incredibly convoluted branch of the undertale fandom), and it seems like Miku is kinda just born from emotions and music, which makes her way more cryptid/deity like than the game presents her to be. Miku is just an entity yknow? I haven’t finished the main storylines of the game yet, but they’re good and also the vocaloid side plots are cool. For example the School world Miku tries her hardest to act like a mentor figure to the humans, whilst Luka (another vocaloid) who is more of a mentor figure to Miku looks on. I think in the fandom, the theme park theatre storyline and the emo shut ins storyline are more popular (because they are the embodiment of the “nothing in life matters” millennial vs gen z meme), and can we talk about depressed Miku because she’s literally born out of somebody’s mommy issues and depression but she’s really sweet. The whole “Miku’s personality is based around the feelings that are put into her songs” are again in reference to how the character of Miku works.

To round off this ramble about Miku I’m going to talk about some of my favourite Miku songs. I’m more of a kagamine Len listener, especially when I was younger and first discovered vocaloid but these are my Miku picks.

Miku by Anamanaguchi: yeah so this chiptune song is about Miku herself and it’s pretty iconic. A lot of vocaloid songs are kinda vague, but this one seems to describe who and what Miku is in a way that makes her seem mysterious, like an interesting technological phenomenon which checks out. She mentions how “anyone can find her” and that people can “play me break me” referring to how she’s easily found on the internet and she can be used to make songs. The ending of the song seems to take a more sinister turn where Miku seems to want to make you stay forever (in like a ddlc Monika way). It does make sense in a way, since Miku is a program that relies on other people’s interest to stay alive and relevant, and in a sense, people’s dedication/addiction to Miku is what keeps her going. She’s like one of those spooky maybe??sentient AIs.

The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku by cosMo: so this is a song depicting what happens to Miku when no one likes her. Specifically this is supposedly about that one time in 2007 when suddenly, Miku disappeared from the search engines, and every time someone tried to look her up, the search results came up blank. She became incredibly popular in a short amount of time that allegedly people searched her so much that Google and yahoo blocked the search, because it looked like spam. The incident upset people so much they created a fan made character, that later was recognised as an official derivative of Miku, based on their boredom. There’s also a conspiracy on whether this was actually a motivated attack on Miku’s popularity due to an anti Miku campaign lead by an advertising agency that influenced the Japanese music industry but idk there are a lot of stories on the internet. Evidently the problem is fixed. The song came out around that time and is about Miku lamenting the fact that she’s getting shut down, and all she wants to do is sing before she dies. Yeah. The song is notorious, not just for its background but also for its incredibly fast paced rap?? part that gets as fast as 240bpm, and I think the fact that’s is almost impossible for a human to sing it, works well with Miku’s struggle with the fact that’s she’s not human.

Okay that’s a lot of talking so here are some quick recommendations:

The maiden of the tree ~ Millennium Wiegenlied ~ by Akuno-P: this is the evillious song about Michaela the spirit turned human lesbian. Very boppy!

Patchwork staccato by toa: I like this one for the actual music it’s a bop. There’s a few interpretations of the song but generally it’s about relationship problems, be it one sided love or a toxic relationship that’s hard to break away from.

Kagerou Daze by Jin: more of a rock song, which is part of a wider vocaloid series (The Kagerou Project) and it’s about a boy who keeps living through the same day over and over again because his friend keeps dying no matter where he takes her. It’s a time travel trauma loop! The song ends when the boy realises to break the cycle, he has to die instead, and m the last verse of the song reveals the girl is also trapped in the same loop. Fun! The actual story is a little different but I don’t need another incredibly complex and convoluted vocaloid series to cry about so I didn’t get into it. Also the animation for it is so cool

Anything from the Night ∞ Series by Hitoshizuku-P x Yama△: a series consisting of four songs sung by eight vocaloids (ofc Hatsune Miku is included), which tell the tale of a group of actors who get trapped repeating the same play of a manor in the woods forever which also becomes real life because someone lost the last page of the script (and also someone perhaps died??). The songs all tell the same story from different perspectives and end differently (but usually either Miku or everyone else dies). There’s a novel about it. It’s confusing spooky and good music. I also feel like I’ve listed way too many dark songs oops.

Aww man I can’t talk about “all phone zombies lead to Rome” by manbo-p because it’s a gumi song, not Miku. It was going to be the one not tragic song on this list! Oh well you should totally listen/watch it, it’s hilarious and also educational.

Well yeah that’s it! My tastes in Miku songs are a little intense but yeah!

#hatsune miku #by doodle I really mean 3+ day projects #outing my incredible concerning music tastes to innocent Ninjago fans I’m sorry #doodlarambla #art #evillious chronicles #millennium wiegenlied #gift of the third sleep princess #project sekai #Miku #anamanaguchi #the disappearance of hatsune miku #patchwork staccato #Kagerou daze #night∞series #bad end night #digital art #fanart #this is my irl friend being an agent of chaos

[cheezitpluscaffineaddict]

SOOOOOOOO I finished reading Terms and Conditions by Lauren Asher. I swear to God I haven't read a better billionaire book before. I personally love grumpy x sunshine + fake dating/marriage tropes. So this book was perfect for me. I do have a little issues with the way the father was dealt but that is alright. I WAS LITERALLY SCREAMING throughout the book because THE TENSION was ultimate. If stares could cut, they both would be chopped into million pieces by now.

My favorite quotes:

“she taught me how anyone can buy a house, but not everyone can buy a home. With a house, you can buy it, sell it, renovate it. But a home is more abstract. It's not a place, but a feeling I can’t describe, so you'll just have to take my work for it.”

“She is taken away for a few scans, and my breaking doesn't return to normal until the nurse brings her back. That should be my first sign that things are getting out of hand on my end. I'm inching closer to an emotional minefield without any kind of map, only one wrong step away from exploding” — Declan Kane page number 236.

“Maybe I am losing it because why else would I care? You hate when she cries. You wouldn't mind murdering someone who hurt her. You took her to the hospital even though you despise them with every fiber of your being. The signs all point to one thing: our situation is quickly crumbling, and I’? The only one to blame.” -- Declan Kane

“If I catch you talking to Iris again, whether about business or not, I'll release this to the public. No questions asked. No second chances. I don't care if you need to use a damn smoke signal to get in contact with me, so long as you leave my wife out of it.”

“But would I have the same company? Probably not. The thought of drinking alone tonight seems unbearable. I've spent an entire lifetime by myself, and while it was never a problem before, it is slowly becoming intolerable.” — Declan Kane page number 254

“A tightness in my chest grows with every step she takes away from me. I hate the feeling sprouting inside of me like a weed, tangling around my heart like a vine, almost as much as I hate Iris walking away from me.” — Declan Kane page number 257. “Our marriage might be fake, but these feelings burning inside me are anything but. It's only a matter of time before I make her mine. She just doesn't know it yet.”

“Pursuing Iris was never an option before, but there is no way I can continue on the same trajectory. I will drive myself mad fighting the urges threatening to consume me whenever she enters the room. Lately, I seem to be driven by the burning sensation in my gut.” — Declan Kane page number 260-261.

“Declan’s laugh is a weapon of mass seduction, and I’m it's biggest target. It’s rough and unpracticed, and it makes a tingle shoot down my spine.” — Iris Kane page number 269.

So a part of his inheritance rule is that Declan should have a family, including a baby. Page number 385: “what if I’m not ready? What if this is all too much all at once and I can't handle a new relationship and a new baby?”

His throat Bob. “Then we wait.”

“Even if it means holding off on you becoming CEO?”

“Even then.”

Now remember, this is the man who literally went ahead with a fake marriage to get the inheritance and become CEO. He is speaking like this. Wow. Talk about head over heels love.

So, they talk in this forein words. Like when they can't explain how they are feeling they say these words. These are a few of my favorites:

Yuafen: A predestined infinity

Kilig: a feeling of exhilaration or elation caused by an exciting or romantic experience

Merak: to do something with pleasure

Mamihlapinatapai: a look shared between two people, each wishing that the other would initiate something that they both desire but which neither wants to begin.

THIS BOOK HAS FINISHED ME. I LOVE IT SO MUCH! I did not read the first book: Fine Print. But if this is how it is going to be, hell I am buying it right now. Rowan and Zahara's story is more like a fairytale I heard but Terms and Conditions is a matured relationship is what I felt.

#terms and conditions #lauren asher #declan kane #iris kane #declan x iris #billionaire #dreamland billionaires #books #books & libraries #annotated books #goodreads #writing #novels #book quotes

[goliath-de-senfina-sango]

A Phantom Adopted

Murder Misery

A devil and a priest go on the hunt, while a late fee collector and his cousins withdraw from attempting to teach a 15-year-old baby. discussions are had, plans are made.

Ao3

One would expect that a soul-sucking shadow demon would be somewhat difficult for people not particularly well versed in tracking others down to find - even more so considering that Leico’s attempt to scry her failed him.  Still, it turned out that feeding on misery in order to sustain one’s looks made one unpopular, and so finding Penelope Spectra was no challenge.  The irritating part was merely that she had someone with her.

A green blob with red eyes, claws, and a fanged mouth arched a brow that wasn’t there a moment ago at them, looking wholly unimpressed.  A corpse-pale woman wearing a cropped black shirt and black pants covered in green flame accents turned around to look at them both, purple lips pulling back to reveal a smile full of fangs.

“My my, it appears someone went about seeking us out, Penelope.  We don’t get many clients who want us, do we?”

“No, we don’t.  I assure you, gentlemen, that I’ll be perfectly able to help you through whatever it is that you’ve got going on in those little heads of yours.”

Leico reached under his cloak, pulling from behind him a silver mace that hummed with power.  Duncan pulled out his pistol, disabling the safety he’d installed after one too many close calls with drunken family.

“You can help me by sitting still and letting us purge you from existence.”

“You can help me by giving me a moving target.”

Five cracks rang through the air as bullets, engraved with infernal sigils, flew and dug into the pair of ghosts with lightning speed and deadly precision.  Duncan grinned at the pair, 3 holes blasted into Spectra and 2 splatters of goo flung from Bertrand’s gelatinous form.

The grin fell and a yelp escaped him as the blob took on the form of a large cat of some kind, and claws sliced into his tail as Duncan tried to dodge out of the way.  Wonderful to learn that one of his opponents could change form like that, very nice.

“What violent little men you are!  You are men, aren’t you, not a pair of monsters trying to make themselves-AH!”

Bertrand was forced back rather quickly when Leico’s hand, wreathed in blinding grey light, slapped the shapeshifter in the center of his body and over half of it was burned away by the light.  The warbling screech Bertrand made as he retreated was music to Duncan’s ears, and he fist bumped Leico while Bertrand turned into a small bird.  

A crackling bolt of violet light flew toward them and the brothers jumped away, putting some space between themselves.  Grey-violet-green light swirled into a ball in his hand, a veritable maelstrom of color, and scoffed at Spectra.

“May your soul face proper judgment at the hands of the Queen.”

“The only Queen I answer to is myself, you pest!”

Spectra rose into the sky, as much as it was the sky, and raised a wall of ectoplasm.  The bolt of holy light pierced it like a rocket through glass, and with a flare of incandescence and a hellish wail, Penelope Spectra was nothing more than a wispy ball of shadow floating aimlessly through the void.

Bertrand flew after the core, hoping to fly his oil stain of a mistress away from the battle.

CRACK

Metal coated in literal hellfire slammed through Bertrand’s wing, and he lost hold of his falcon form.

CRACK

Pain became his world and Bertrand was reduced to naught but his core, the ectoplasm around him too thick with holy and infernal magic from their attackers to pull into himself, to build a new body.  That was fine, he would be fine, they’d assume this was the worst that could be done and walk away.  Humans didn’t know how the soul worked, after all.

CRACK

Another bullet sailed through Penelope Spectra’s core, and even stripped down to a core himself, Bertrand could feel her screams, fire and shadows exploding into nothing.  He shuddered with a violent sorrow that threatened to rip him apart.

CRACK

Rather than joining his precious Penelope, Bertrand was faced with a far more horrific reality.  Without his core, he was unbound from the ectoplasm that made up the liminal realm, and without it there was nothing.  No sight, no sound, no touch or smell or taste.  The countless senses that being a ghost afforded them, gone.  He simply was.

True destruction would have been a mercy, but demons and priests were not known for mercy when dealing out retribution.

Duncan sighed, checking over his pistol before holstering it.  Taking a deep breath, he let fire rise from within, sealing up the miniscule cuts that Bertrand had managed to land on him, and shook out his limbs.

“That was disappointing.  I expected a fight not 12 seconds of executing a couple of weaklings.”

“They preyed on children, Duncan, what did you expect?   I’m honestly just surprised they managed to nick you.”

“Yeah yeah, rub it in.  I just didn’t know that there’d be a shapeshifter, or I’d’ve backed up a bit more.   Whatever.   Think there’s a bounty we can collect on?”

“What currency would ghosts in a multicultural melting pot of an afterlife even use?  Energy?”

“True, it’d probably be a barter system or IOUs.  Whatever, let’s get back home, shall we?  Truly a riveting tale on how long this took to get to.”

Leico snorted and put away his mace, gesturing at the air in front of them.   The ectoplasm swirled up and out into a shimmering grey-violet disc, resolving into a gateway onto the deck of the Rose Phoenix.  Sharp winds and arctic cold flew out of the Gate and Leico shivered, wrapping an arm around Duncan for warmth.

“Well, if Toby and Valdan got wrapped up with the kid, Dave is dealing with learning the medicinal technology.   Hopefully this doesn’t turn into a fight.  I can feel that place sucking in my heat from here.”

The pair walked onto their spelljammer, leaving Spectra and her assistant to think about what they’d done for however long it took for souls to connect with ectoplasm.  Or however long it took until a lich found them, either or.

#

Jazz rushed over to check on Danny, and after several minutes of making sure there were no bruises, bumps, or cuts, she had to admit to that overprotective sister within that he was fine.  She turned to glare at Cole, who drifted lazily down beside her to give Danny his own cursory once over.  She took a deep breath, and spoke in a near hiss.

“What just happened?”

Cole held up his hands in surrender and shrugged, which did little to soothe Jazz’s building irritation.

“I dunno, probably used up a lot of energy learning a new power and tossing it out at me.  I’m not the best at all this spirituality stuff-“

“You’re literally half air spirit but alright, cous.”

“-I do know how to keep people from pulling on my magic to fill up their own drained supply.  Your brother needs to eat more.”

“Most likely needs more food filled with ectoplasm, it’s incredibly energy rich.  Maybe he should spend some time in the Ghost Zone?  Who knows.”

“As I asked, do you know where Elle is?  I personally haven’t tried my hand at scrying her but I’m rather certain that she’d feel it if we did that and I’d rather not creep her out when we go find her to offer her help.”

“I can try to look for her, I guess, but I’m pretty sure that Elle is laying low to avoid grabbing Vlad’s attention.”

“Who exactly is this Elle person, Tucker?”

“Oh yeah, we never did end up telling you about her.  Save any and all yelling until the end of the explanation or I’m going to stop telling you, got it?”

Jazz took a deep, measured breath, and nodded to Sam.

“Ok, before you start telling that tale, I’ve gotta say I’d find her better if I had the Fenton Finder­­­TM since that could track down her ectosignature.  Buuut, I’d need Vlad’s record of that ectosignature in order to look for it in particular.”

“We should also probably get Danny into an energy rich environment so he can recover faster.  How do you kids feel about seeing our ship?”

“No.  We’ve just met you, it’ll take more than one meeting to establish the trust needed to get us to a secondary location, especially with Danny passed out.  I’m taking Danny home now, we’ll contact you when we’re ready to meet you again.”

“Well, that’s a fair enough point I guess.  After we sneak into Vlad’s place to get some more data, I’ll get back to you on finding Elle if we do before you.  Regardless, you should probably tell us before you go to get her, so we can talk with her as a group - familiar faces and all that.”

“Well now, if it’s breaking into some rich guy’s house to steal information, I can help you out with that.  Kinda my specialty and all that.”

“You don’t have a specialty; you just do everything.”

“Thank you, yes.  So, you guys head back to your place, we’ll figure out what we’re gonna do on our end, and we can meet back… well, how about here?”

“Oh sure, we can turn the observatory into a real homebase.”

Tucker paused as he considered that, tilting his head.

“Actually, yeah, why don’t we do that?”

“Tucker, schemes later, getting Danny in the car now.  Thank you, Toby, Valdan, Cole, for helping us out.  We’ll keep in touch, see what you can teach the kids.  For now, have a good day.”

Tempting as it was to ask just how old Jazz was to be calling the others kids, Valdan knew when to cut his losses.  So he nodded and shook Jazz’s free hand, while Cole picked Danny up and carried him over to Jazz’s… car.

“I don’t like the vibes this thing gives off.  You got here in this?”

“Well if you’re connected to the weather like you claimed then I imagine you wouldn’t be all that pleased near a car.  I’ve tried to convince my parents to make an engine that’s eco friendly and isn’t running on ectoplasm, since that’d just animate the car itself.  They’re not much into making things that aren’t related to ectoplasm.  I might just make a new engine myself, actually, that’s probably a lost cause.”

“Welp, you’ve lost me so I’m gonna go now before you start rambling about machine parts the way Duncan and David do.  Bye.”

A cloud of shimmering vapor and ice swirled into Cole’s hand and flew out to an empty spot a few feet away.  Lightning flew from his hand to the cloud and it compressed into a flat circle of sky blue and toxic green, which swept out to the edges.  On the other side was the deck of a ship, surrounded by a howling blizzard and blinding white snow and ice.  Laughing at the sight, Cole grabbed his husband and cousin before jumping through the portal, which sealed shut behind him.

“Alright, a lot of things happened just now.  Let’s talk about that on the way home.  But first, Tucker, you’re going to tell me about this Elle person.  We’ve got plenty of drive to go before we even get to Sam’s house, so don’t try to say ‘it’s a long story’.”

Tucker sighed and settled down in shotgun, sticking tongue out at Sam when she glared from the backseat.

“Ok, so it all starts with Vlad.”

#

The Rose Pheonix was currently in the shape of a submarine, and David wondered about that.  He did not, after all, instruct it to change into any particular kind of vessel when they approached the massive iceberg that bordered the seemingly infinite Far Frozen realm, having no plans to go into it on the ship – he’d modified his and Apogo’s armor to be perfectly suited for the cold after all.  He would have to check the engines and see how the ectoplasm around them was affecting the mythallars.

Returning his attention to his family, however, David looked them all over and sighed.

“Duncan, didn’t we agree not to have weapons at the table?  Put your guns away before Valdan and Leico see them.  You don’t need em to regale us with how amazing your battle with Spectra and Bertrand was.”

Duncan rolled his eyes but got up anyway, stalking out of the room with a shout over his shoulder.

“It was barely a fight anyway!  Next targets need to be tougher.”

“Next time we need you to kill someone, I’m sure they’ll be a better opponent.  For now, we should focus on finding this Elle kid and getting her the help she needs.  Thankfully, the Far Frozen have agreed to lend us their medical technology and offered their services in actually checking out Elle’s stability issues and all that after we mentioned that she’s the clone of Danny.”

“Apparently they had this prophecy about him beating the big bad King of Ghosts single-handedly, and he did, so they find him worthy of worship or whatever.  Makes me wonder what kind of tyrant that king had to be for that kind of love for a kid ya don’t know.”

“Welp, that’s a whole other thing to look into but let’s keep our priorities straight, shall we?  First we need to find and help Elle, then we track down this Vlad character and see how best to eliminate him from the equation.  After that, I kinda wanna stay here for a bit, their world feels like it’s in need of help to maintain a balance with nature.”

“Before we can take out Vlad we need to find out if he’ll come back as a regular old ghost or if there’s a way to properly purge him, because there’s no reason he can’t shapeshift to look like his living self and resuming business as usual.  He’s a threat to everyone we’ve gone and gotten attached to here, and there’s no guarantee that he isn’t a major threat to Elle too since he made her.”

“Find and help Elle, research and kill Vlad, guarantee he stays properly dead for long enough that the kids don’t have to deal with him until they’re adults, and then we can split up jobs between helping the material world with whatever imbalance it’s having with nature and technology.  That sound good?”

There were agreements all around the table, and the twins walked in setting down food along the table.

“Glad you guys decided on a plan, cause it’s time to eat now.”  

“We’ll start actually working on things after, got it?” A chorus of ‘yes sirs’ rang out in a rainbow of tones and the Lumanos sat down to eat.

#

This here is for @floralflowerpower, @ebonyheartnet, and @five-rivers ! I hope you enjoyed! Have a lovely December and feel free to toss out conflicts I can shovel onto Danny's plate if you think I've been a touch too nice to him.

#Danny Phantom #Rexy Writes #A Phantom Adopted #Bertrand #Penelope Spectra #Leico Lumano-Song #Duncan Song-Lumano #Jazz Fenton #Cole Lumano #Valdan Song-Lumano #Toby Lumano #Tucker Foley #Fanfiction #fanfic #fic #fanphiction #fanphic #phanfiction #phanfic #phanphiction #phanphic #phic #OMCs

[tokkias]

Lucy for the ask thing <3

send me a character . always open

Why I like them because she's my perfect little babygirl?? because she's the kindest, prettiest, softest, most badass woman alive. because she's so full of love and im so full of love for her that my heart is about to explode rn.

Why I don’t my god girl! grow a fucking backbone! stop putting up with the horrible shit people put you through! you don't have to forgive everyone! hold a grudge every once in a while!

Favorite episode/scene all of them. every single one. every time she is on screen i die. dead. killed. deceased. murdered. slaughtered. etc etc. this might be a case of recency bias but i do really love lucy vs. kiria, specifically the gemini x aquarius star dress.

Favorite line again. lots of good ones. i would be hard pressed to pick a single one. but this one makes me laugh. she's so me.

Favorite outfit are you kidding me? that woman has a million different outfits oh my god. i'm going to cheat and give three different answers my favourite "default" outfit is her x791 outfit my favourite stardress is capricorn my favourite other outfit is her gmg team fairy tail a outfit

OTP NALUNALUNALUNALU<33333

Brotp her and levy

Head Canon during her year in crocus she didn't have a lot of work-life balance. she was either working, looking for leads on former fairy tail members or doing nothing. she tried to pick up new hobbies that weren't reading or writing because she was already doing so much of that, but she didn't do much long term. the most significant thing she did was teach herself how to juggle over the course of about a week when she was bored and she got really good at it. no one finds this out about her until years later and natsu and happy are absolutely enthralled by it, they make her show everyone at the guild. she thinks it's silly that they're so excited over it but she's glad she actually gets some use out of it.

Unpopular opinion i like her aquarius x gemini star dress. it's my favourite of the mixes and i like it more than a good chunk of the regular star dresses. i also really like the regular aquarius one too. i literally do not care that they're just bikinis. she's hot. and discourse over if it's oversexualised overlook the fact that it's probably the coolest magic she has????

A wish i want a taurus x aries star dress and i want a big badass moment where she saves everyone and i want a nalu kiss please please please please please.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen sigh. i don't want her to get aquarius' key back. i think it would undo the progress she's made without her.

#mya's mumbles #lucy heartfilia

[pugscoffee]

If your taking asks:

-Who’s your favourite Heavenhold Champion?

-Favourite 3-Star, 2-Star and 1-Star/NPC?

-What’s your favourite world (Story-wise?)

-What’s your favourite world (Mechanic-wise?)

-What’s your favourite element?

-What’s your favourite weapon class?

-If you were a character in Guardian Tales, what would your element, weapon class, and role be?

-What is your favourite boss fight? And which boss do you hate fighting the most?

-If you play Guardian Tales, who’s usually on your team?

-If you could fight/punch 1 character in Guardian Tales, who would it be?

Before starting i want to say what i won't be answering your questions with "Knight","Garam" or "Craig" as response because (i am literally obsessed with them 24/7,like,the brainrot is in fact real.) i want to take this opportunity to talk about my other favorite characters i am very fond of,so now,let's start!

▪︎Who is your favorite Heavenhold Champion?

-My favorite Champion is definitely Coco! (Sorry Lilith,she always wins my heart 🫶🏻)Ough I LOVE HER OKAY??? (Platonic) I'm being honest when i say what she is a very well written character (and World 16 truly showcases that!),i love her personnality so much ok??? I still don't understand why there is people what doesn't like her,she is so nice! her design is cute,it looks so warm and comfyyy,Coco is a very relatable character too-....at least for me (Me 🤝 Coco= Having trust issues ),honestly,i get very happy everytime i see more content of her ingame (like fr,when i saw what Coco appeared in the second Summer Side-story i legit screamed of happiness 😭).

▪︎Favorite 3-Star,2-Star and 1-Star/NPC?

-Favorite 3-Star: LAPICE MY BELOVED WIFE OF COURSE!!!💞🩷💞🩷💞🩷💞🩷💞🩷(Again,sorry Lilith)My silly wifeyyy i'm going to cherish your dreams forever,maybe you don't have that much content ingame (and the Devs are aware of it,and still decided to make fun of it) but i still love you so much 🫶🏻

-Favorite 2-Star: EVA‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ She is awesome! I love her like.....Ourg Eva my beloved you're so amazing I LOVE (Platonic) YOUUUUUUUUU 🩷💞🩷💞🩷💞,best AroAce icon to me frrr 🤞🏻,also! haven't you see the way what she cares about the Princess???? It warms my heart so much ahlskelwwkel🥹💞 She is a very determined person with a great heart,and her knowledge of magic is so interesting,i would like to see the game expanding more the lore of how the magic works in Tetis tbh,and let me tell you her use of magic is cool! Even if is kinda looking goofy ingame tho (like please i would pay a shit ton of money just to have a class about how magic works and how to use it if Eva was my teacher fr 🙏🏻)LET MY GIRL APPEAR IN THE MAIN STORY AGAIN RIGHT NOW‼️‼️‼️🫵🏻

-Favorite 1-Star: AILIEEEEEEE‼️‼️‼️‼️ *fucking explodes*💥💥💥She is my silly underrated girl,she is a bit traumatized but that's understandable,she is capable of committing murder,does shady stuff,her current job is collecting stuff from rotting corpses,a kind of manipulative girl (fitting knowing her job),an Asexual Lesbian with a Boomer Bi Paternal figure what she cares so much of and defend him to dead if possible (according to the worms in my head 💞🩷💞🩷).Someone was stalking her? She knows and completely gaves a fuck about it ma girl can smack their head with a hammer anytime✌🏻,she probably would be a Twitter user in real life and send death threats,she is such a fucking bastard and she knows it✨️

I'm so fond of her unfortunately.

Hoping for her 3-star version soon 🙏🏻 -

▪︎What's your favorite World (Story-wise?)

-Honestly? I don't know..... Maybe World 16? It has so much Lore to dissect here....

▪︎What's your favorite World (Mechanic-wise?)

-None! I have a love/hate relationship with any game mechanics i fear :)

▪︎What's your favorite element?

-Hhhmm this is a hard one.... Light? Because Lapice and my daughters FP and Priscilla are here i guess.

▪︎What’s your favourite weapon class?

-Staff! I love what we can use Scythes there :)

▪︎If you were a character in Guardian Tales, what would your element, weapon class, and role be?

-Easy!

Element: Dark

Weapon: Staff

Role: Support (I know what i would suck at having a fighting role in GT lmao 💀)

▪︎What is your favourite boss fight? And which boss do you hate fighting the most?

-Maybe it was hellish for other players but i love fighting Beth,it was a good challenge! BUT Raid Fairy. I FUCKING HATE FIGHTING HER.

▪︎If you play Guardian Tales, who’s usually on your team?

-Lapice,FP or Priscilla,Hana and Miya most of the time. I need a better team to advance story mode tbh

▪︎If you could fight/punch 1 character in Guardian Tales, who would it be?

-Let me change that "1" to "3" because I want to punch the shit out of Halbal,Kaden and Morrian,and more Kaden honestly 👊🏻.

So that would be! Thank you so much for the questions! They were fun to answer! 🫶🏻💞🩷💞

#guardian tales

[suboptimal-xenobiologist]

Headcanons about the clown cult

aka hiveswap isnt canon it cant hurt me hiveswap explode now

HOWEVER, purplebloods are definitely the ones “running” the cult. Alongside the casteism that is already fundamentally built into trolls in general, higher blooded trolls are also seen as being more holy, in a way. Purples are the only ones allowed to actually gain authoritative positions in the clown church. You cannot have a lowblood pastor.

List will be updated as I think of more.

The cult is not full of murder purplebloods it is as far removed from the concept of a highblood group let alone a violent group as you can possibly get on alternia this shit is based on being equal as brothers in arms before the mirthful messiahs and whatever. The religion and its members are open and accepting to all castes and baseless murder is pretty much off limits. This aspect of the cult is considered just as stupid to the rest of alternia as the clown gods thing.

The “purple bloods in particular are encouraged to join the cult” thing is largely )(IC’s doing. The Experience that Gamzee had during murderstuck is very common among apostate highbloods (which it’s really hard not to be once you get shipped off to space), so by creating a self-sufficient factory of immortal clowns drunk on highblood rage, she ends up with an insane boost in her army’s strength.

Okay so back to the actual cult itself. The general teachings of the cult are hedonistic in nature, and strongly encourage the followers to develop a toxically positive mindset. “get wrecked on sugar instead of dealing with your problems.” “highbloods get zonked out of your mind to suppress highblood-rage.” “literally just don’t worry about anything the messiahs will take care of it” (this also makes it really hard for people to leave the cult of their own volition, since that would mean having to face The Horrors head on without a pre-built tolerance for them. Just checking off that last box on the BITE model.)

They actually glorify the whole “emotional masking” thing in a very literal way, which is where the face paint comes from. True to the clown code from real life, it’s essential that the makeup is 1.) always covering your face and neck when other trolls are around (beforian practices mandated that no unpainted skin should be visible but alternia is more lenient) and 2.) have a unique, consistent, and generally happy look. It’s both a symbolic and literal way of making sure you are constantly putting on a positive “performance”

The mirthful messiahs are not necessarily loving. Clowns believe that they bless their followers and whoever they deem worthy with miracles (which are real for some reason), and that they will one day eradicate everything in paradox space that they don't like.

The actual workings of miracles and chucklevoodoos are guarded to the grave by the high-ranking clowns who are allowed to know them, but they can be used by apostates (and frequently are in intergalactic war)

#homestuck #alternia #trolls

[broken-clover]

Baiken adopting orphan psychic Delilah and a few years later getting convinced to put her in the Psychonauts program. She hears Some Shit Is Going Down and, somehow, finds her way to the HQ and refuses to leave until she's sure her kid is safe. For some reason nobody can bend her sword and every time they send someone inside her head to figure her out they run screaming out and refuse to elaborate

ohohOHOHO MY GOD Baiken in Psychonauts takes things to an even more batshit level and I'm welcoming it with open arms. Whether or not she's psychic would be amazing, because if she isn't I'm still convinced Baiken could body every major threat in the Psychonauts universe just with a sword, and if she is, then, well, somehow we've found a way to make Baiken of all people even more dangerous.

Psychic intern Delilah sounds fantastic for all the wrong reasons, I imagine she would take a shine to Raz with enough time since he's just so open and friendly (and his mischievous side in some ways reminds her of her brother), but to everyone else she's that kid with the Murder Stare who can and probably will make you spontaneously explode if you tick her off.

When Baiken shows up, literally nobody is surprised the two of them are related

#Also fully agree #I can only imagine what a level based on Baiken's mind would be #I can only imagine it being some kind of kaizo nightmare #though that could also be read as something horrifyingly depressing #to the point that nobody can dive in because 'how have you not completely snapped after all that oh my god' #and regrettably I am already attached to this because I have no self restraint #ask #delilah #baiken

[yes-i-have-thoughts]

Who wants some tidbits about OCs that I never talk about because my Tumblr profile has slowly been getting murdered thanks to hiatus

[REDACTED]/KREATUR/WESEN

- Spawned from the one (1) time I drew GL!Ranboo as a creature (because why not) while listening to ‘Bloody Mary’ on a five-hour loop and the idea that came from it went so far off course from canon that it went from an AU to an original story idea

- (In my defense I drew him when I was only 20 minutes into the first episode. I barely had any idea what I was getting into at the time so of course my creative drive was going to derail)

- (My brain needs to stop dragging people up when I’m 30 seconds into their source (iykyk))

- ANYWAY.

- Wesen’s real name has been lost to time. He’s not that old, he just doesn’t remember his name due to being punished whenever he tried to correct his captor on what it was

- His captor called him Kreatur ("Creature"; "die Kreatur - creature, creation, wretch, minion") to dehumanize and objectify him. This drove him insane for obvious reasons so he somehow got his hands on a German dictionary and fought to change his name to Wesen ("das Wesen [German] being, nature, essence, creature, character, entity") instead. Because if you’re gonna call him a creature you could at least be nice about it

- His captor let it go and he’s gone by Wesen for years since.

- Wesen’s also a walking bomb! He has a kill switch built in to the base of his skull that can also be used to give him a headache ranging from “oh owie” to “my brain is pressing against my skull and I am in agony”. If his captor cranks it all the way up his head will explode. It’s supposed to stop any act of rebellion and is therefore a literal explosive leash.

- He’s not aware of its existence and his captor gives him a headache severe enough to make him pass out from the pain if any of his fellow prisoners draw attention to it, so he won’t know it exists until it’s too late.

- It likely might’ve been put on him since he killed two people when a team tried to catch him. Maybe they should’ve left him alone, then.

- Wesen isn’t human. Avery (a fellow prisoner) calls him a canine, and she’s half right. He’s a dog-like bipedal creature with white fur covered in black spots

- I’ll get around to drawing him one day. He’s on the planned roster for Art Fight.

- He wouldn’t hurt a fly, most of the time. He’s sort of a doormat. That said, he’s not totally innocent and he does have blood on his hands--not all of it unintentional, either. His captor holds this above his head as a reason why they can’t let him go.

- He’s a lot smarter than he acts. Turns out he’s playing dumb, since—as he’ll later tell Avery—it’s saved his life over and over again.

- He’s masculine-leaning agender.

BELPHALAGOR

- Goes by “Bel”. Also masculine-leaning, but more genderfluid than agender.

- Belphalagor is a bipedal goat who swears he’s average height and everyone else is just a tallass. They use Wesen as its “proof” of this, but Wesen’s barely an inch over average height (5′ 9″)

- Whereas Bel herself is 3-4 feet tall.

- Bel is made of ink, sort of. He has flesh, but their blood is black, smells strongly of something not natural and is poison to ingest (as some more feral enemies will find out). It obviously wasn’t born this way but tends to dodge the question as to how this came to be.

- She’s stuck in a suit most of the time, but prefer wearing dresses. The once time he gets a chance to they jump on it.

- Bel’s eyes are closed 90% of the time, rendering them blind. It heavily depends on Wesen to guide her around.

- Something happens later on that reveals why he prefers to keep their eyes closed as much as possible.

- (he/they/it/she pronouns. Bugger’s collecting the things.)

[REDACTED]/AVERY

- Avery is the must humanoid of the bunch. This is because unlike the other two she’s not a canine creature or Mountain Goat stolen, experimented on, then stolen again. She’s a human that got kidnapped and freed herself when they tried turning her into a bird woman. (These people really like amalgamating animals with the weirdest shit.)

- She acts like your typical action woman cliche—no-nonsense, only sane person in the group, tragic backstory, “I don’t need a man”—but she’s not immune to being silly. She slowly drops her guard the more time she spends around idiots 1 and 2 (affectionate).

- They’re both fools but they’re HER fools and she loves them. (The sentiment is returned ten-fold once she drops the “I’m too good for you” act.)

- She’s a bit of a fool too, though she won’t admit it.

- She has a plague doctor mask pretty much fused to her face. A modern-day one, based off a crow. She can take it off, but it’s very painful and what’s underneath isn’t pretty.

- Her hair is pretty short and growing...Weird. It’s all spikey and feathered. She’s kept it short as much as she could until she can find someone to reverse this bloody bird transfusion.

- She’s also got feathers growing out of her arms. It’s painfully slow, but they’re becoming more noticeable as time goes on.

- She and Bel butt heads often over who should do what in what context. Sometimes they fight for so long that by the time they’ve worked it out Wesen’s solved the problem already.

- She and Wesen didn’t exactly hit it off immediately. She was a bit patronizing towards him; treating him like a dog or very slow human. Once she learns that he’s not that fucking dim, though, they bond very quickly.

- She’s the only cisgender one of the group. Bel calls her the “token female” despite also using she/her pronouns (likely just to piss off Avery, who always takes the bait).

- Avery’s name was given to be a play on “aviary”. She can’t stand it, but she doesn’t remember her old name so she’s currently stuck with it.

#El writes #Wesen #Belphalagor #Avery #Kill Switch #/a2t

[arcane-temp-fandomblog]

How was Silco able to make Piltover get off Zaun's back all those years ago after pilties were never able to retrieve jayce's hex crystals? They'd soon know the true potential of those crystals which would help change the future of Piltover's standing in the world! Yet they seemed to have just forgotten about the crystals stolen by undercity thieves? When Jinx steals crystals from Jayce all those years later in a similar fashion, nobody in the council remarks on how this happened before?

Also the head of their police force was murdered! And since Marcus imprisoned Vi without anybody's knowledge then nobody supposedly was brought to justice for any of the crimes committed against Piltover. Literally why did Piltover let Zaun off the hook all those years ago then? And they presumably even started to withdraw the Enforcer presence from the undercity?? ... what?? Years later when Jinx killed the head of Piltover's police force again, the city was at the brink of a civil war. And speaking of Marcus, why was he of all people promoted to sheriff? He didn't accomplish anything in his mission to apprehend the people behind the robbery? For some time I thought Marcus spun a story where Grayson was in Vander's pocket and was discarded by him when she couldn't protect him anymore. But Piltover has a monument of her and everything. So clearly she wasn't disgraced or anything. I don't understand why people don't talk much about how Silco managed to control both Piltover and the undercity from turning against him after his takeover bid.

Sorry, can't do screenshots atm, so just check it if you need to:

How was Silco able to make Piltover get off Zaun's back all those years ago after pilties were never able to retrieve jayce's hex crystals?

Greyson says when she and Marcus are summoned to the council in episode 2: "we don't know what we found, much less what we didn't find". It's good to assume that no one, aside from Marcus, who knows there were crystals missing in the first place on Piltover side. Not even Jayce, who may just assume that whatever crystals were not confiscated, have been destroyed in his apartment explosion. And the ones Jinx had - have exploded, so it's a neat wrap up for Marcus. That's why council wouldn't remark on it, because no one knows about it aside from Silco & his people, Jinx, Vi and Marcus - imo. this will come back for sure with Cait and Vi story next season since they were on opposite side of the door when the explosion happened.

I'll start in different order but:

And speaking of Marcus, why was he of all people promoted to sheriff?

He was already Greyson's second in command, so it was natural he would be promoted.

Greyson - But Piltover has a monument of her and everything.

That was just a normal grave not a monument, maybe a bit better that the ones random enforcers from episode 4 will get but probably super common for middle class in Piltover. I know it's not uncommon where I'm from to have these little mausoleums.

Also the head of their police force was murdered!

I'm going to bank that aside from Marcus and Caitlyn no one gave 2 shits that Greyson was murdered. Enforcers are just pawns for the council that 'enforce their decisions', you don't see council being very concerned about enforcer loss of life when the episode 4 or 7 carnage happens. (Well aside from Jayce, who wants to ie. in episode 4 close hexgates just in case.) They don't even remark on it aside from 'what did Marcus get from undercity that he couldn't have in Piltover'. It's also only Marcus that attends funeral and tries to give some proper send off to the dead enforcers of episode 4. So imo. Greyson was for them disposable, sad thing that happened in line of duty and typical stuff politician's say.

As an aside, since that's a note I may do in more depth in the future when I can do screenshots, but Marcus does noticeably change the way he interacts with the council between act 1 and 2. In act 1 he's super gang ho to prove himself to them, and in act 2 - he seems much more disillusioned with remarks that 'they do what they want'. I also think being the sheriff made him privy to all the corruption and doing things outside the law they engage in. Something Greyson seems to be aware of in act 1, and something Caitlyn probably will be aware of by the end of Arcane since she'll be the next sheriff. I'm sure that'll be wonderful angst time for her and her mom.

It may be that he keeps their dirty stuff out of the public eye and under wraps, at least his interactions with Jayce about the shipping/hexgates seems to point to that when he tries to dissuade Jayce to look more into it. Plus all of the files he keeps out of archives on the desk in his office may be from the council.

Literally why did Piltover let Zaun off the hook all those years ago then?

Eh, scapegoats? Seems and easy answer, Silco probably let Marcus just grab some poor souls - that were not involved in any way - to Stillwater or Marcus did it himself to cover his ass. As Vander said "council needs it's pound of flesh" and Marcus is a resourceful man. And if anyone said to be criminal tried to prove their innocence, it'd be Marcus' word against some poor undercity folk. But that's giving too much credit to Piltover, I'm not sure they hold trials for not Piltover citizens. I'm kind of sure we'll see that in action season 2, lol.

And they presumably even started to withdraw the Enforcer presence from the undercity??

They really didn't, Marcus did that - enforcers only go there if they hear undercity is in a state of unrest or if the undercity citizen did something against Piltover. Marcus and Silco 'engineered' that voices of unreast in Zaun wouldn't reach Piltover, basically Marcus covered for Silco and undercity for probably all those years. Council thought that the undercity not a threat and they have it under control, little did they know that a whole sister city identity of Zaun was growing under their noses.

That's why Marcus says to Silco that if he is discovered, they're both over. 'Coz Marcus, our boy, is doing some heavy lifting here to cover for the undercity - not because he's Silco's fan, but because the alternative is worse for him.

It's very evident in council archives for Caitlyn, that well Piltover has little idea about whole nation of Zaun project and those in undercity won't really talk to enforcers.

NE: He may come from up here, but he's a citizen of the nation of Zaun. ENFORCER: The what? NE: An independent nation. If we don't get the luxuries of living under you, why should we be ENFORCERed by your laws? Should we not make our own? A government that works for us instead of against us?! ENFORCER: Sit down! NE: …Yes, ██ ENFORCER: Is that what Chross wants to do? Start his own nation? NE: No, not Chross.

And that person in the interview is willing to go to Stillwater for not ratting out Silco. So I assume most people in the undercity are either loyal to Silco's vision or find it part of their identity enough that they don't mention it topside to not shed light on it. Ekhm, like Viktor, who I assume knew about the growing sentiment in the undercity. I'm 90% sure of that, otherwise Jayce would not know the word 'Zaunite' in the final council meeting.

Undercity under Silco's rule imperfectly became it's own entity and state - nation of Zaun. Even if people don't agree with Silco, they adopted being from Zaun as identity.

Or how the official Arcane website states:

But at its heart, this sister city thrums with hope, ingenuity, and an unbreakable spirit that neither greedy chembarons nor aggressive enforcers could ever take away. As the age of hextech looms, her citizens no longer see themselves as Topsiders. Instead, they look up with desperate determination and dream of something more. 

Yeah, their own city nation.

Anyway, onwards

Years later when Jinx killed the head of Piltover's police force again, the city was at the brink of a civil war.

It's at the brink of civil war from way before Marcus dies, even before Jayce agree's to Marcus' idea of the blockade. Marcus' death only makes it tangible to the council that something needs to be done.

And then they don't do anything. Aside from Jayce but he's new to the whole council stuff.

Silco and the hexgem is all new threat to the council, remember Caitlyn thinks Silco is just an industrialist in episode 5. None of them has any idea he deals in shimmer - or at least Hoskel doesn't.

Yeah governing sucks when you removed yourself so much, you don't actually know your own population sentiments. /s I love Hoskel btw, hope he solves his puzzle.

Undercity is at boiling point way before - since that's what Mel gets in her letters, and Silco mentions that Piltover is leaving undercity behind because of hexgates, and Ambessa also knows it. So way before act 2 starts since act 2 and 3 are just more than a week at most.

Silco managed to control both Piltover and the undercity from turning against him after his takeover bid.

Vander and Benzo imo. run a 'protection racket' as implied in episode 1 / Benzo's shop discussion. Where Benzo was the collector and Vander kind of kept that under wrap from Vi & gang. So it may be that for most undercity's people it was just a substitution of one man at the top for another. It may have even gotten better like for Babette.

But yeah Silco was a weasel and managed with cooperation from Marcus keep the whole plan a secret until Zaun nation project was powerful enough.

Thanks for the ask.

Ps. question, who inherits Marcus' daughter? Cait and Vi or someone else ie. Jayce? Maybe it'll just be left unfinished but I don't think so.